head and horny sides, in the same manner as a human being, when in good spirits or idle, drums with his fingers on the table. There is a sound which has often struck terror into the souls of the superstitious, and which is frequently heard behind the ceiling, called the death-watch. This has been ascertained to be caused by a small species of wood-beetle, and most probably in the same way as the cricket produces its sound, by beating with its feet, or its mandibles or teeth, on the wood.

SECTION XI.

OF THE ECONOMY OF BEES AND OF ANTS.

Of all insects those which live in communities are the most singular. A bee-hive, or an ant-hill, are cities in miniature, containing many thousand inhabitants of different sexes and different ranks, and where the most perfect system, order, and regularity prevail. Bees have from the earliest ages attracted the attention of the curious. The Greeks and Romans were acquainted so far with their natures; but modern discoveries, especially those of Reaumur, and of the patient and accurate Huber, have thrown much more light on the singular economy of these interesting animals.

A hive, or community of bees, consists of a queen, which is the common parent of the whole, of several hundred drones, or male bees, and of some thousands of working or common bees. The queen

bee is of larger dimensions than the majority of her subjects; her body is long, and her abdomen, or hind part, tapers out in a conical shape, especially when filled with thousands of eggs, the embryoes of her future progeny. In consequence of the length of her abdomen, the wings appear short in proportion to those of the common bees; like these, too, she is furnished with a sting.

The male bee is larger than the common workers, but thicker in the body than the queen. The wings are longer than the body, and project over the abdomen.

d A piece of honey-comb, showing the construction of the common cells.

The working bees are neither male nor female; or rather, according to some late discoveries, they are sterile females, not having their organs sufficiently developed. These working bees are divided into wax-gatherers and nurses, and on them devolve all the labour, and management, and industry of the hive. They go abroad and collect wax and honey, build up the cells, attend upon and feed the queen, and take the whole charge of rearing up and feeding the young bees. Indeed nothing can exceed the perseverance and disinterested industry of these creatures. Every moment of their time is occupied in labour; if the weather is fine, in the fields roaming from flower to flower; and if at home, busily labouring at the construction of cells, each one assisting the other in their mutual task, and all combining to promote the common good. Bees collect from flowers three different substances, all necessary for their existence and comfort. With their long tongue, or proboscis, they dip into the cups of flowers, and extract the nectar or honey. Part of this honey undergoes a digestive process in the stomach, and becomes wax; for the common idea that the wax is procured, ready made, from flowers, and is the

little pellets seen on the thighs of the bee, is erroneous; this being quite a different substance.

At the same time that the bee is extracting the honey from flowers, it also rolls about its body, and thereby detaches a quantity of the pollen, or fertilizing dust of the flower. With its legs it brushes off this dust from its body, and collects it into two round balls, which it fixes in a hollow basket-like cavity, situated on each of the hindlegs, and thus, loaded with honey and pollen, it returns to the hive. This substance called pollen is the bee-bread, which is used in feeding the young bees, &c.

A third substance collected by the bees is of a viscid gummy nature, and is called propolis: it is used as a cement in the hive, for filling up cavities, covering up any extraneous matter which the bees cannot remove, and which would be otherwise offensive, and for various other purposes of a similar

nature.

When a labouring bee thus returns loaded to the hive, others are ready to unload the pollen from her thighs, and dispose of it according as it may be required. The honey she deposits into a cell prepared for it, or she goes round and feeds