young or old, gay or grave, you may, if you will, be the bet ter for it. Whither, midst falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast- Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned, And soon that toil shall end, Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest Thou'rt gone the abyss of heaven He, who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, CHAPTER V. The model society of the hive-bee-The Wasp-The Ant-The Ant-lion-The land crab-General inferences-Conclusion. Who has not spent many a bright summer's morning in watching the proceedings of the hive bee? When the gates of the populous city are thrown open, and the hum of the multitude rises on the still air, take your station near the city; now a troop of laborers come struggling out; now a band laden with the sweets of the field, blocks up the entrance; and now, all is clear again. Hark, that low buzz! There comes a funeral procession; see them bearing off the little corpse of a companion; now a posse of carpenters are repairing some of the public works. What now? Here come workers, builders and nurses, elbowing and crowding one another, with true city politeness. See that! One of them is almost crushed; they should summon the police; their exquisite sense foretells the approach of rain, and they are hastening to shelter. " But could you obtain a pass port into the wondrous metrop olis, your admiration would be, if possible, increased. In the main streets, you will see companies by tens and twenties, with their wings united by the marginal hooks, whose duty it is to ventilate the crowded streets by the motion of these natural fans; yonder comes a relief file. Wo betide the ignorant snail who incautiously ventures within the hive! They cannot pierce the shell with their weapons; they might cover the unwieldy intruder with propolis,* but that would be expensive; and that is an important consideration, for you Resembling wax. Then their architecture solves must know that the bee is an accomplished economist; so they take a hint from the snail, and fasten his house with an insoluble cement to the walls, thus making the unconscious animal a prisoner for life, and then in true Egyptian fashion, embalm the gigantic carcass. a problem which has puzzled many a mathematician, and one in fact, which was wrought since the time of Newton, crowning the discoverer with a mead of unmerited praise. In the language of Reaumur, "a quantity of matter being given, it is required to form out of it, cells, which shall be equal and similar, and of a determinate size, but the largest possible, with relation to the quantity of matter employed, while they shall occupy the least possible space." The hexagonal* cell of the hive-bee, fulfils the conditions of the problem. A casual observer, however, will not fail to perceive great variety in the construction of their cells, showing an adaptation to circumstances which would swell the instinct roll to a fearful extent. That the standard form is the result of pure instinct, I do not doubt, but that a certain degree of intelligence is exhibited in many of their acts, I have no hesitation in saying. Some of the cells are circular, and some elliptical; some are formed of four pieces, and some of five; some are erect like so many columns, others lie horizontally; some of them are half an inch in depth, some, thrios that capacity. Perhaps the most interesting portion of the subject is the loyalty manifested by all classes towards the royal family. Nothing can exceed the affection, and care of these miniature subjects, for the queen, who is literally the mother of her people. Her slightest wish is gratified; when she moves, a * Having six sides and six angles. train of courtiers are always in attendance; a system of duennaship, relative to the young queens is maintained, which would do honor to the most jealous court of Europe. The animosity which exists among their rival monarchs is truly human, and whenever a foreign queen intrudes, where the throne is already occupied, she is strictly guarded; and the question of supremacy is left to the queens themselves, which is generally decided by the fall of one of the royal combatants. Deprive a hive of their queen, and the most disastrous consequences ensue; the labors upon the public works are suspended; the laborers collect in little bands in the streets, and the peaceful community is at once transformed into a riotous multitude. Then is the moment for an intruding monarch; she will be welcomed with every demonstration of respect and affection; peace will be restored, and the sweets of the field and the garden will again be laid under contribution. If turning from the model society of the hive-bee, we contemplate the habits of that rude, but industrious rustic, the humble bee, very much that would seem to be the result of intelligence, cannot fail to attract our attention. Among these little villagers there are no privileged classes; no drones subsisting upon the hard earnings of their neighbors; no court, no queen, nothing of all this, but a plain, honest community of laborers. The result of their summer days of toil, you and I, (to our shame be it said,) have destroyed, as in the thoughtlessness of boyhood, we followed the track of the reapers in the harvest field. Did you ever see them working at their cottages? Arranging themselves in a line, the bee most distant from the site of the habitation, having selected a tuft of moss, divides it with its teeth, and with its first two legs, transfers it to the second pair, and then again to the H third, by which the ball has approximated the place, by about the length of one bee; another laborer stands ready to take it, and passes it, in like manner along its regiment of legs; another seizes it, and so on, until it reaches its destination! What political economist ever recommended a wiser course, in the division of labor? Their affection for their young almost without a limit. At a certain period in their growth, the bees brood over the cocoons like so many hens, in this manner communicating that warmth which is necessary to the existence of the delicate inmates. is Huber placed ten of these silken cradles in such a position that they had no foundation, upon which to rest firmly. The bees were in trouble; the cocoons were so unsteady that they could not cluster upon them. After several attempts to remedy the evil, as a dernier resort, several of them mounted upon the comb, and fixing their hindermost feet upon its edge, and the foremost upon the table, succeeded in holding the mass firmly, while their comrades clustered upon the cocoons. For three days, did these living props relieve each other, at the end of which time, a sufficient quantity of wax was prepared to build pillars for this purpose. Was this act an instinctive or an intelligent one? If the former, what is the difference between them? For it is highly improbable that this community were ever placed under such circumstances before, or indeed ten of their species, since the first bee "Wound her small, but mellow horn." These honest rustics are frequently waylaid by their genteel cousins from the hive, and by pulling and mauling are compelled to surrender their fragrant burdens for the use of these accomplished highwaymen; sometimes the hive-bee, taking advantage of the simplicity of the villager, actually |