THE REDBREAST.

COLD blew the freezing northern blast,
And winter sternly frown'd,
The flaky snow fell thick and fast,
And clad the fields around.

Forced by the storm's relentless power,
Embolden'd by despair,

A shiv'ring Redbreast sought my door,
Some friendly warmth to share.

"Welcome, sweet bird," I fondly cried,

"No danger need'st thou fear;

Secure with me thou mayst abide

Till warmer suns appear.

"And when mild spring comes smiling on, And bids the fields look gay,

Thou, with thy sweet, thy grateful song,
My kindness shalt repay.'

Mistaken thought! But how shall I
The mournful truth display?
An envious cat, with jealous eye,
Had mark'd him as her prey!

Remorseless wretch! her cruel claws Soon seal'd her victim's doom; While I, in silence, mourn his loss, And weep o'er Robin's tomb !

So, oft in life's uneven way,
Some stroke may intervene,
Sweep all our fancied joys away,

And change the flattering scene.

THE Bee is a small insect of a brown colour, covered on the corslet and belly with hairs; it has four wings and six legs; the thighs are also covered with strong bristles. Each Bee is furnished with a trunk or proboscis, commonly folded up, but capable of being extended at pleasure. It is with this instrument that they collect their food; not by pumping or sucking, but by licking it from the nectaria of flowers. Observation has proved that it is only the queen and labouring Bee that have stings; and this provision of

a sting is perhaps as curious a circumstance as any attending the Bee. The apparatus itself is of a very curious construction, fitted for inflicting a wound, and at the same time conveying a poison into that wound. They have been known to pierce the palm of the hand, which is covered with a thick skin, as deep as the onetwelfth of an inch.

There are, of the Domestic Bee, at certain seasons of the year, three kinds in every hive; the males, the females, and the Bees without sex. The latter every person is acquainted with; their number is beyond comparison greater than that of the other two kinds. Nature seems to have destined them solely for the purpose of labour; and the whole drudgery of the hive lies upon them; hence they have properly been termed Working Bees, or Labourers. It is only during one or two months in the summer, when the hive is most crowded, that the males are found in it; and even then they do not amount to a tenth part of the whole: but they are of a superior size. During the whole course of the season, except a few days, there is only a single female to be discovered in the most numerous hive. Her fecundity, however, is so prodigious, that she is soon capable of multiplying her family to such a degree that the hive can no longer contain it. To her the whole swarm, from ten to twenty thousand, owe their birth. Her residence is generally in the interior apartments of the hive; when she shows herself she is readily known by her size, being longer than even the male Bees, but inferior in thickness. From a number of well-attested experiments and observations, it appears that her life is more precious than any of the rest; for she is the soul of all their operations. If a hive be deprived of her, however numerous, it will undertake no labour; and the individuals will hardly give themselves the trouble of collecting their daily subsistence. A swarm that have been busy from morning to night constructing cells and collecting wax, immediately upon this accident

seem to forget that the flowers contain their food; they scarcely stir from the hive, construct no new cells, nor even finish what were begun; but the moment she is restored, their wonted spirit and activity are resumed by the whole swarm.

This queen, without the cares of government, is indeed busily occupied, but in functions of a different kind; and these are, the production of a vast number of eggs, which she continues to drop one after another, into the empty cells, during a considerable part of the summer. This animal, which is so amazingly productive, on being opened, has been found to contain upwards of five thousand eggs, all of a size sufficient to be perceptible. If we make allowances for those that were already dropped, and many more not yet formed, so as to become perceptible, we shall no longer deem it incredible, that this animal should in one season become the mother of so many thousands. In three weeks' time, the young Bees are ready to make their appearance as winged animals, and their first employment in that state is to gnaw off the wax with which the entrance of their cells had been secured.

When the Bees begin to work in their hives, they divide themselves into four companies: one of which roves in the fields in search of materials; another employs itself in laying out the bottom and partitions of the cells; a third is employed in making the inside smooth, from the corners and angles; and the fourth company brings food for the rest, or relieves those who return with their respective burdens. Their diligence and labour are so great, that in a day's time, they are able to make cells, which lie upon each other, numerous enough to contain three thousand Bees. When the Bees at any time rest themselves, there is something very particular in their method of taking their repose: it is done by collecting themselves together in a heap, and hanging to each other by their feet: they sometimes extend these heaps to a considerable length.