removed as laid, the male bird may addle them by partially sitting. When the swan begins to sit on whatever eggs are substituted for those removed, her own ones should be replaced, and the others taken away. PIGEON S. Pigeons are among the most ornamental and useful appendages of a rural dwelling. If permitted to fly abroad to seek their food, little expense will be incurred for their keep, while the value of their young will be of some importance to cottagers. The pigeon has a great power of flight, and will go to a distance of many miles in quest of the means of subsistence; but wherever it may fly, it never fails to return home. The leading features of the district around its habitation appear to be impressed on its memory; and flying at a great height, and with a wonderful power of vision, it sees the well-remembered landmarks, and directs its path homeward. This habit of seeking for the place at which it was reared, makes it difficult to keep pigeons in any new home; the best plan of inducing them to settle in a new abode is to clip one wing, which prevents their flying, and keep them in a cot near the ground till they get accustomed to the place. Some persons keep their pigeons in the space between the garret and roof of their dwellinghouse, with holes at which they go out and in; and this arrangement answers very well, for the animal's lodging must be dry and comfortable. A more regular plan is to furnish them with a properly constructed dove-cot, aloof from any building. The cot should consist of a substantial wooden box, with a sloping roof, and divided interiorly by partitions into as many cells as pairs are to be kept, for each pair requires a distinct cell. Each compartment should be twelve inches deep from front to back, and sixteen inches broad; the entrance-hole should not be opposite the centre of the cell, but at one side, so that the pigeons may build their nest a little out of sight. In front of each cell there should be a slip of wood, to rest and coo upon; but as different pairs incessantly quarrel about the right of walking on these slips, and are apt to fight for the possession of cells, it is best to separate the slips with upright partitions; and it would be an improvement to have two or three small cots instead of one large one. The cot, of whatever size or form, should be elevated on a wall facing the south-east, or otherwise placed at such a height as will be out of the reach of cats and other vermin. The cot should be painted white, as the pigeon is attracted by that colour. Gravel should be strewed on the ground in front of the dove-cot, the birds being fond of picking it; and a little straw or hay is necessary for the nests. Cleanliness is indispensable to the health of the birds, and a scouring out of the cot should therefore take place regularly. In commencing to keep pigeons, a pair or two should be procured which have not flown, and they should be shut up for a time, and well fed. Their chief food is grain, and the kind which they prefer to all others is dried tares. Small horsebeans are another favourite article of diet, and very nutritious to them. ing-time, they associate in pairs, and pay court to each other with their bills; the female lays two eggs, and the young ones that are produced are for the most part a male and female. When the eggs are laid, the female, in the space of fifteen days, not including the three days during which she is employed in laying, continues to hatch, relieved at intervals by the male. Kept with ordinary care, a pair will give to the breeder nine pair or so in a year, and will continue to do this for four years. With regard to the best breeds of the common domesticated pigeon, it is difficult to give any useful instructions. They have been cultivated to a great extent, and many distinct varieties have been formed, but the differences rest chiefly in colours, and the special value of each lies in the taste of the fancier. The leading varieties of fancy-pigeons are known by the names of the English Pouter, the Dutch Cropper, the Horseman, the Unloper, the Dragoon, the Tumbler, the Leghorn and Spanish Runt, the Trumpeter, the Nun, the Fan-tail, the Capuchin, and the Burr. The last has a peculiarly short beak, and is remarkable for a ring of unfeathered flesh which surrounds a small sharp eye. The English pouter, depicted in the frontispiece, possesses the remarkable property of blowing out its breast or crop to such an extent that it rises to a level with its beak, and the bird appears to look over the top of an inflated bladder. The fan-tails are considered great beauties. The training of pigeons as letter-carriers forms a lucrative employment in some countries. The instinct which has rendered the carrier-pigeon so serviceable, is the strong desire manifested by all pigeons to return to the place of their ordinary residence; and man has adopted various precautionary measures in order to make its return on particular occasions more certain. A male and female are usually kept together, and treated well; and one of these, when taken elsewhere, is supposed to have the greater inducement to come back. It is even considered necessary by some that the bird should have left eggs in the process of incubation, or unfledged young ones, at home, in order to make the return certain; but probably these are superfluous precautions. When the moment for employing it has arrived, the individual requiring its services writes a small billet upon thin paper, which is placed lengthwise under the wing, and fastened by a pin to one of the feathers, with some precautions to prevent the pin from pricking, and the paper from filling with air. On being released, the carrier ascends to a great height, takes one or two turns in the air, and then commences its forward career, at the rate of about forty miles an hour. CAGE-BIRDS. Prominent among the many birds usually domesticated in cages in Britain are canaries, siskins, goldfinches, bullfinches, larks, linnets, thrushes, blackbirds, starlings, and parrots. The only means by which these or any other species of birds can be reared and preserved in a healthy condition, is to accommodate each as far as The house-dove, or common pigeon, as is well possible with the food, space for exercise, and known, begins to breed about the age of nine other conveniences which the animal would enjoy months, and breeds every month. During breed-in a state of nature. The most difficult thing to The breeding of canaries requires additional afford is space: where a room or aviary can be fitted up with all requisite accommodations-accommodations. The breeder must have a large perches to resemble trees and branches, grass, moss, and other plants, patches of gravel or sand, secluded places for nests, a trough of clear water, &c. the birds will thrive, breed, and be cheerful; But such accommodations can rarely be afforded. Placed in this state of comparative confinement, no birds can possibly thrive unless great care is bestowed in furnishing them with food and fresh water daily, keeping their habitation very clean, and placing them in a cheerful situation in a parlour, where they can enjoy the light. The food of cage-birds is very various. 1. Canaries, goldfinches, and siskins, live only on seeds; 2. quails, larks, chaffinches, and bullfinches, feed on both seeds and insects; 3. nightingales, redbreasts, thrushes, and blackbirds, take berries and insects. Rape-seed, hemp-seed, and poppy-seed are the favourite feed with the first class. To many enumerated in the other classes, cheese, crumbs of bread, barley-meal, cabbage, &c. are particularly palatable. Bechstein thus describes two kinds of paste extensively given to cage-birds: 'To make the first paste, take a white loaf which is well baked and stale, put it into fresh water, and leave it there until quite soaked through; then squeeze out the water, and pour boiled milk over the loaf, adding about two-thirds of barley-meal with the bran well sifted out, or, what is still better, wheat-meal; but as this is dearer, it may be done without. 'For the second paste, grate a carrot very nicely (this root may be kept a whole year if buried in sand); then soak a small white loaf in fresh water, press the water out, and put it and the grated carrot into an earthen pan, add two handfuls of barley or wheat meal, and mix the whole well together with a pestle. These pastes should be made fresh every morning, as they soon become sour, particularly the first, and consequently hurtful. For this purpose, I have a feeding-trough, round which there is room enough for half my birds. It is better to have it made of earthenware, stone or delf ware, rather than of wood, as being more easily cleaned, and not so likely to cause the food to become stale.' Canaries are described as the chief pets of the parlour. Being originally from a warm climate, they are tender, and must be kept in rooms of an agreeable temperature; if exposed to cold either in rooms or the open air, they pine and die. In dry weather in summer, their cage should be hung in the open air, or at least in the sunshine. If the apartment is kept too hot, they will moult at an improper season, and this must be avoided. Only one male should be allowed in a cage. Females for breeding are the better for having a large cage, as it affords them space for exercise. The greatest care must be taken to clean the cage, of whatever dimensions, and to scatter a little fine sand on the bottom of it. Each should be provided with three cross-sticks as perches; a small glass-trough for water, fixed outside, at the extremity of one of the sticks. The water must be changed daily, or even more frequently. Some persons, from mistaken kindness, offer pieces of rich cake and other inappropriate food to canaries, and the little creatures being fond of these things, do themselves a great injury by eating of them. cage, into which the pair of birds is put about the middle of April. At the upper part of the cage, at one end, boxes for the nests are placed, with holes to go out and in by; and in the centre of the cage, near a perch, a network bag is hung, filled with cotton, wool, moss, hair, and other soft materials, for the birds to use for their nests. The female alone builds: and in about ten days after pairing, she lays the first egg. She ordinarily lays six eggs-one every day; but each egg is to be taken away as laid, leaving an ivory one only; and when she has done laying, replace all the six. The period of incubation is thirteen days. When the young are hatched, finely minced egg and bread should be placed near the feeding-trough, to enable the parents to carry suitable food to their young. Canaries will mate with siskins, linnets, several of the finches, and other allied birds, producing in many instances highly esteemed mules. Similar treatment suits the siskin, of which there are several varieties, as the black, white, and speckled. The skylark requires a roomy cage, at least eighteen inches long, nine wide, and fifteen high; the bottom should have a drawer, in which enough of river-sand should be kept for this scratching-bird to be able to roll and dust itself conveniently. It is also a good plan to have in a corner a little square of fresh turf, which is as beneficial as it is agreeable. The top of the cage must be of linen, since, from its tendency to rise for flight, it would run the risk of wounding its head against a covering of wood or iron wire, especially before it is well tamed. The vessels for food and drink must be outside, or a drawer for the food may be introduced in the side of the cage: sticks are not necessary, as the lark does not perch. The starling, if well treated, soon becomes exceedingly familiar, and may be taught to whistle various airs, and pronounce words and short sentences with accuracy. Parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, and macaws, all possess beautiful plumage of green, crimson, yellow, or grayish tints. They are chiefly from South America, and require the warmth of a dwelling-house to keep them alive in this country. All possess harsh voices, and would on that account be considered a positive nuisance by most persons, except for the oddity of their being able to repeat certain words. They are allowed a large cage, formed of strong wires, with thick round bars to perch upon, and a ring at top to swing from by their hooked beak. All the parts must be of tin, for they would soon peck wood to pieces. The food offered to parrots, macaws, &c. is chiefly bread steeped in milk, nuts, or any other simple article. Care must be taken never to give them anything containing salt or pepper. The cockatoo is generally esteemed as of milder temper than the parrot. For ornamental pets, paroquets-many of which are not much larger than the common house-sparrow- -are generally preferred; and though not quite so showy in plumage as the macaws, lories, and cockatoos, yet their tints are often extremely beautiful, and they never become offensive by screaming, which is too often the case with their larger congeners. THE HONEY-BE E. HE subject of Bees has for many ages at Sacred Writings, the most ancient of which we have any knowledge, shew in numerous places how strongly the fathers of the Jewish people had been impressed by the peculiarities in the natural history of the Bee; and we know that Aristotle and other philosophers of old Greece deemed the subject worthy of years of patient investigation. Virgil also, and many other Roman authors, dwelt on it with enthusiasm in their writings; while, in much later times, many distinguished cultivators of science have pursued the same track with ardour. The most zealous of these inquirers was Francis Huber (born at Geneva 1750, died 1831), who, though labouring under the deprivation of sight, by the aid of his wife formed a most valuable collection of observations on the habits of bees, and to whose work-as yet the best of its kind-we shall have frequent occasion to refer. Societies have been formed for the sole purpose of investigating this portion of natural history. On the present occasion, an attempt can only be made to cull from the most approved sources such details as may form a complete-although very concise-history of the Honey-bee, along with directions for the practical management of this most useful insect. Bees are arranged by zoologists in the family of the Apida (apis, a bee), in the order Hymenoptera of the Insect class. (See ZOOLOGY.) The Social Bees form the principal division of the family, their type being the Apis mellifica, the common Honey-bee. To this species the observations to follow will have reference; but the description of it applies in all the most important particulars to the other honey-storing species of the Old World, the differences being very inconsiderable amongst those of them which, like it, have been made by man his property and the objects of his care. It is somewhat doubtful whether the common Bee is a native of Europe, or was originally introduced from the East. Another species, the Ligurian Bee (Apis Ligustica), is found in the south of Europe, and has recently been introduced into this country by some of our zealous bee-cultivators. The Hive-bee of Egypt is the Banded Bee (Apis fasciata). Besides these, there are other species, all very similar to them, as they are to each other, which are cultivated-if the expression may be used-in different parts of the East Indies and of Africa. The native wild bees of America do not belong to the genus Apis, but to a quite different group of the great family of the Apida, and their honey is remarkably liquid. The common honey bee has, however, become completely naturalised in North America, and is to be found in the woods at great distances from the abodes of civilised men. differ considerably, while their uses and functions By far the most numerous class is that of the workers, or working-bees, formerly regarded as neuters in respect of sex, but now more properly considered as undeveloped females. The second class is composed of the males of the hive, termed the drones. There is usually but one perfect member of the third class present at a time in a hive, and this is the queen, or mother-bee, the sole perfect female of the community. Workers. The working honey-bee has a body about half an inch in length, blackish-brown in hue, and covered with close-set hairs, which are feathershaped, and assist the creature materially in collecting the farina of flowers. The head, which is a flattened triangle in shape, is attached to the chest by a thin ligament; and the chest or thorax, which is of a spherical form, is united in a similar way to the abdomen (see No. 9). The abdomen is divided into six scaly rings, which shorten the body by slipping over one another to a certain extent. These three external divisions of the insect's body have all of them appendages of peculiar interest and utility. The head is provided with a double visual apparatus. In front are placed two eyes, consisting each of numerous hexagonal plates, studded with hairs, to ward off the dust or pollen of flowers; and three small eyes are also to be found on the very top of the head, intended, doubtless, to give vision upwards. The antenna, however, which are two slender horns springing from betwixt the front eyes, and curving outwards from each side, most probably fulfil many of the purposes of vision in the dark interior of the hive. These instruments have each of them twelve articulations, and terminate in a knob, gifted with the most delicate sensitiveness. By the flexibility of the antennæ, the bee is enabled to feel any object in its way; and there can be little doubt that it is chiefly by means of these it builds its combs, feeds the young, fills the honey-cells, and performs the other operations of the hive. Bees also use these appendages for the recognition of one another. The The mouth of the bee is a very complex structure, and one wonderfully fitted for its duties. Its most important parts are the mandibles, the tongue, the proboscis, and labial feelers. mandibles are merely the two sides of the upper jaw, split vertically, and movable to such a degree as to enable the insect to break down food betwixt them, to manipulate wax, and use them otherwise as serviceable tools. They are furnished with teeth at their ends, two in number. The tongue of the bee is extremely small. Many of the usual functions of a tongue are indeed performed by the proboscis, a long slender projecA hive of honey-bees contains three classes tion, composed of about forty cartilaginous rings, of inhabitants, the external characters of which | fringed with fine hairs. From the base of this, on ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 673 cach side, rise the labial feelers, instruments also fringed or feathered interiorly; and outside of these are the lower jaws, similarly provided with hairs. When the feelers and jaws close in on the proboscis, they form a sheath or defence to it. Naturalists used to suppose the proboscis a tube; but they now know that it acts by rolling about and lapping up, by means of the fringes around it, everything to which it is applied. The gathered material is conveyed into the gullet at its base, whence it passes into the internal organs. When not in use, the whole can be so folded or coiled together as to be strongly protected. To the trunk or thorax of the bee exteriorly are attached the muscles of the wings and legs. The wings consist of two pair of unequal size, which are hooked to one another, in order to act in concord and steady the movements in flying. The bee has three pair of legs, of which the anterior pair are the shortest, and the posterior the longest. All of them have articulations for the thigh, leg, and foot, with some minor joints in the latter part. The hind-legs are marked by a special and beautiful provision: a cup-like cavity on the basal joint, intended for the important purpose of receiving the kneaded pollen which the bee collects in its wanderings. The legs are all thickly studded with hairs, and more particularly the cavity mentioned, in which the materials require to be retained securely. Another provision of the bee's limbs consists in a pair of hooks attached to each foot, by means of which the animal suspends itself from the roof of the hive or any similar position. Beneath or behind the wings, the spiracles, or air-openings, are found, which admit air to the air-tubes, which, as in other insects, permeate the whole body, for the oxygenation of the circulating system. Bees carefully ventilate their hives. Oxygen is apparently as necessary to the vitality of the circulating fluids of insects as to those of warm-blooded animals. Huber completely proved both that respiration is essentially necessary to bees, and that the spiracles are the instruments by which it is effected. He found that they die in an exhausted receiver, and become asphyxiated when shut up in numbers in close bottles. They perish in water only if the spiracles are under the surface; and the use of these apertures is then made apparent by the bubbles which escape from them under water. Besides these appendages and contents of the chest, that region is traversed by the esophagus, or gullet, on its way to the digestive and other organs situated in the abdomen. These organs consist of the honey-bag, the stomach, the waxpockets, and the intestines, with the venom-bag and sting. The honey-bag, sometimes called the first stomach, though digestion never takes place there, is an enlargement of the gullet into a peasized bag, pointed in front, with two pouches behind. In this receptacle is lodged the fluid and saccharine portion of the bee's gatherings, which, by the muscularity of the coats, can be regurgitated to fill the honey-cells of the hive. A short passage leads to the second or true stomach, which receives the food for the nourishment of the bee, and also the saccharine matter from which the wax is secreted. The small intestines receive the digested food from the stomach, and from them it appears to be absorbed for the purposes of nutrition. Wax, it was once thought, was pollen elaborated in the stomach, and ejected by the mouth; but it is now known to be entirely derived from the honey or saccharine matter consumed by the insect; and John Hunter discovered two small pouches in the lower part of the abdomen, from vessels on the surface of which it is secreted. After it has been accumulated for a time in these pouches, scales of it appear externally below one or other of the four medial rings of the abdomen, and are withdrawn by the bee itself or those around it. Close to the stomach is found the last important organ of the abdomen, the sting. Much beautiful mechanism is observed on a microscopic examination of this weapon, so powerful in comparison to its bulk. It consists of two long darts, adhering longitudinally, and strongly protected by one principal sheath. This sheath is supposed to be first thrust out in stinging; and its power to pierce may be conjectured from the fact that, when viewed through a glass which magnifies a fine needle-point to the breadth of a quarter of an inch, the extremity of the sheath ends so finely as to be invisible. The sheath once inserted, then the two still finer darts follow, and make a further puncture to receive the poison, which is conducted to the end of the sheath in a groove; and in order that the conjoined darts may not be withdrawn too soon, they have each nine or ten barbs at the point to retain them. The insect ejects the poison by means of a muscle encircling the bag at the base of the sting, in which bag the venom is secreted. The chemical composition of the poison has not been discovered, though it has so far the nature of an acid as to redden the vegetable blues. Altogether, Paley, in his Natural Theology, is fully justified in pointing to the defensive weapon of the bee as a wondrous union of mechanical and chemical perfection. The manner in which the bee collects the food which forms the various secretions alluded to, is worthy of note. The hairs with which its body and feet are covered are the main instruments used. By means of the hairs on the feet, the insect usually begins its collection of the pollen in the corolla which it has entered, and after kneading the dust into balls, finally places it in the baskets of the hind-legs. But the creature is not content with the product of this process. Rolling its body round and round, it brushes off the pollen still more cleanly, gathers it into two heaps with its active brushes, and loads its baskets to the brim. Even afterwards, bees sometimes fly home like dusty millers, and brush their jackets when unloaded. The pollen is understood to be brought home by the working-bees as food for the young. The fluid secretions contained in the nectaries of flowers, and honey-dew, which is a deposition of certain aphides on plants, serve as other natural varieties of the bee's food. The insect is also at certain periods a liberal drinker of water. The organs of vision of bees have been already mentioned. Inquirers have been staggered by seeming contradictions connected with the vision of the bee. After collecting its store of food, its first movement is to rise aloft in the air, and look for the site of its home. Having determined this in an instant, however distant the hive may be, it goes for the point with the directness of a cannon-ball, and usually alights at its own door, |lish the possession of hearing by bees; as signals by sound, made when the eyes could not detect the movement attending their production, would otherwise be valueless. The antennæ certainly possess a delicate sense of touch. Huber points out a moonlight night as the best time for observing the uses of the antennæ in this respect. The bees, guarding against the intrusion of moths, have not light enough to see fully, and they circumambulate their door with the antennæ stretched right before them. The instant a moth is felt, it is destroyed. When the queen of a hive is lost, the antennæ form a curious means of spreading intelligence. Bee after bee protrudes its antennæ, and crossing them with those of its next neighbour, disseminates in this way the sad news over the hive. Besides the antennæ, the feelers have been shewn by experiment to possess a considerable degree of sensibility, and to serve in part as organs of touch. Drone. though the whole country be crowded with hives. Such are the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the common or working bee. The duties of this order include almost the whole Hives differ business of the bee community. greatly, of course, in the number of their inmates, taking them even at the same season. tain but a few thousands; others from twenty to thirty, forty, and even fifty thousand. Of these the drones compose but a thirtieth part, or little more; all the rest, with the exception of the queen, are workers. Drones or Males. The drones or males differ considerably in outward appearance from the workers: they are bulkier and flatter in body, with a round head, a shorter proboscis, and antennæ with an additional articulation; they have no basket-cavity on their hind-legs, and their abdomen contains the means of secreting neither honey, wax, nor poison, while the reproductive organs are there found instead. They are called drones from the peculiarly loud noise which they make with their wings. They live but for the reproduction of the race, and when the object of their existence is accomplished, they are doomed to die. The workers, who have their own winter-food and that of the coming young to provide, instinctively pass sentence of death at the fitting time; despatch the defenceless males with their stings, and cast them forth from the hives, in which, from their size and voracity, their presence A merciless has now become a positive evil. massacre of the drones regularly takes place at the Queen-bees. The queen-bee is of larger size than either the consequences. Such facts as these go far to estab- drone or the worker; she has an elongated body, 675 |