season for laying eggs is over, then is the season for collecting honey; therefore, when the last chrysalis for the season comes forth, its cell is immediately filled with honey, and as soon as a cell is full, it is covered over with pure wax, and is to be considered as a store for the winter. This covering answers two very essential purposes: one is to keep it from spilling, or daubing the bees; the other to prevent its evaporation, by which means it is kept fluid in such a warmth. They are also employed in laying up a store of bee-bread for the young maggots in the spring, for they begin to bring forth much earlier than probably any other insect, because they retain a summer heat, and store up food for the young.

In the month of August, as the males do not provide for themselves, they become burdensome to the workers, and are therefore teased to death much sooner than they otherwise would die; and when the bees set about this business, of providing their winter-store, every operation is over, except the collecting of honey and bee-bread. At this time it would seem as if the males were conscious of their danger, for they do not rest on the mouth of the hive in either going out or coming in, but hurry either in or out: however, they are commonly attacked by one, two, or three at a time: they seem to make no resistance, only getting away as fast as possible. The labourers do not sting them, only pinch them, and pull them about as if to wear them out; but I suspect it may be called as much a natural as a violent death.

The queen, the mother of all, in whatever way produced, is a true female, and different from both the labourers and the male. She is not so large in the trunk as the male, and appears to be rather larger in every part than the labourers. The scales on the under surface of the belly of the labourers are not uniformly of the same colour, over the whole scale; that part being lighter which is overlapped by the terminating scale above, and the uncovered part being darker: this light part does not terminate in a straight line, but in two curves, making a peak; all which gives the belly a lighter colour in the labouring bees; more especially when it is pulled out or elongated. The tongue of the female is considerably shorter than that of the labouring bee, more like that of the male: however, the tongues of the labourers are not in all of an equal length, but none have it so short as the queen. The size of the belly of the female of such animals varies a little, according to the condition they are in: but the belly of the male and the labourer has but little occasion to change its size, as they are at all times nearly in the

same condition with regard to fat, having always plenty of provision: but the true female varies very considerably; she is of a different size and shape in the summer from what she is in the winter; and in the winter she has what may be called her natural size and shape; she is, on the whole, rather thicker than the labourer.

I believe a hive, or swarm, has but one queen, at least I have never found more than one in a swarm, or in an old hive in the winter; and, probably, this is what constitutes a hive; for when there are two queens, it is likely that a division may begin to take place.

The male bee is considerably larger than the labourers: he is even larger than the queen, though not so long when she is in her full state with eggs: he is considerably thicker than either, but not longer in the same proportion: he does not terminate at the anus in so sharp a point; and the opening between the last two scales of the back and belly is. larger, and more under the belly, than in the female. His proboscis is much shorter than that of the labouring bee, which makes me suspect he does not collect his own honey, but takes that which is brought home by the others; especially as we never find the males abroad on flowers, &c. only flying about the hives in hot weather, as if taking an airing; and when we find that the male of the humble bee, which collects its own food, has as long a proboscis, or tongue, as the female, I think it is, from all these facts, reasonable to suppose, that the male of the common bee feeds at home. He has no sting.

The labouring bee is the largest in number of the whole community: there are thousands of them to one queen, and, probably, some hundreds to each male, as we shall see by and by. It is to be supposed they are the only bees which construct the whole hive, and that the queen has no other business but to lay the eggs: they are the only bees that bring in materials; the only ones we observe busy abroad; and, indeed, the idea of any other is ridiculous, when we consider the disproportion in numbers, as well as the employment of the others, while the working bee has nothing to take off its attention to the business of the family. They are smaller than either the queen or the males: not all of equal size, though the difference is not very great.

The number of labourers in a hive varies very considerably. In one hive there were 3338, in another 4472, in one that died there were 2432. That I might guess at the number of bees from a given bulk, I counted what number an ale-house

pint held, when wet, and found it contained 2160, therefore, as some swarms will fill two quarts, such must consist of near

9000.

Bees certainly have the five senses. Sight none can doubt. Feeling they also have; and there is every reason for supposing they have likewise taste, smell, and hearing. Taste we cannot doubt; but of smell we may not have such proofs: yet, from observation, I think they give strong signs of smell. Bees may be said to have a voice. They are certainly capable of forming several sounds. They give a sound when flying, which they can vary according to circumstances. One accustomed to bees can immediately tell when a bee makes an attack by the sound.

It is only the queen and the labourers that have stings; and this provision of a sting is, perhaps, as curious a circumstance as any attending the bee, and probably is one of the characters of the bee-tribe. 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. The apparatus consists of two piercers, conducted in a groove or director, which appears to be itself the sting. This groove is somewhat thick at its base, but terminates in a point; it is articulated to the last scale of the upper side of the abdomen by 13 thin scales, six on each side, and one behind the rectum. These scales enclose, as it were, the rectum or anus all round; they can hardly be said to be articulated to each other, only attached by thin membranes, which allow of a variety of motions; three of them, however, are attached more closely to a round and curved process, which comes from the basis of the groove in which the sting lies, as also to the curved arms of the sting, which spread out externally.

The two stings may be said to begin by those two curved processes at their union with the scales, and converging towards the groove at its base, which they enter, then pass along it to its point. They are serrated on their outer edges, near to the point. These two stings can be thrust out beyond the groove, though not far, and they can be drawn within it; and, I believe, can be moved singly. All these parts are moved by muscles, which, we may suppose, are very strong in them, much stronger than in other animals; and these muscles give motion in almost all directions, but more particularly outwards. It is wonderful how deep they will pierce solid bodies with the sting. I have examined the length they have pierced the palm of the hand, which is

covered with a thick cuticle: it has often been about the one-twelfth of an inch.

The apparatus for the poison consists of two small ducts, which are the glands that secrete the poison: these two lie in the abdomen, among the air-cells, &c.: they both unite into one, which soon enters into, or forms, an oblong bag, like a bladder of urine; at the opposite end of which passes out a duct, which runs towards the angle where the two stings meet; and entering between the two stings is continued between them in a groove, which forms a canal by the union of the two stings to this point. There is another duct on the right of that described above, which is not so circumscribed, and contains a thicker matter, which, as far as I have been able to juge, enters along with the other: but it is the first that contains the poison, which is a thin clear fluid.

From the stings having serrated edges, it is seldom the bees can disengage them; and they immediately, on stinging, endeavour to make their escape, but are generally prevented, being, as it were, caught in their own trap; and the force they use commonly drags out the whole of the apparatus for stinging, and also part of the bowels; so that the bee most frequently falls a sacrifice immediately on having effected its purpose.

The life of the male is only one summer, or rather a month or two; and this we know from there being none in the winter, otherwise their age could not be ascertained, as it is impossible to learn the age of either the queen or labourers. But I think it is probable, also, that a certain number of young ones may be retained to keep up the stock, as we must suppose that many of the old ones are, from accidents of various kinds, lost to the hive; and we could conceive, that a hive three or four years old might not have an original bee in it, though a bee might live twice that time. But there must be a period for a bee to live; and, if I were to judge from analogy, I should say, that a bee's natural life is limited to a certain number of seasons.

Account of some remarkable Caves in the Principality of Bayreuth, and of the Fossil Bones found there. HUNTER, Esq.-[1794.]

By JOHN

A RIDGE of primeval mountains runs almost through Germany the highest parts of this ridge are granite, and are flanked by alluvial and stratified mountains, consisting chiefly of limestone, marl, and sandstone; such at least is the tract

of hills in which the caves to be spoken of are situated, and over these hills the main road leads from Bayreuth to Erlang, or Nurenberg.

The tract of hills is there broken off by many small and narrow vallies, confined mostly by steep and high rocks, here and there overhanging, and threatening, as it were, to fall and crush all beneath; and every where thereabouts are to be met with objects which suggest the idea of their being evident vestiges of some general and mighty catastrophe, which happened in the primeval times of the globe. The strata of these hills consist chiefly of limestone of various colour and texture, or of marl and sandstones. The tract of limestone-hills abounds with petrifactions of various kinds.

The main entrance to the caves of Gailenreuth opens near the summit of a limestone-hill towards the east. An arch, near seven feet high, leads into a kind of ante-chamber, 80 feet in length and 300 feet in circumference, which constitutes the vestibule of four other caves.

In the passage to the third cave, some teeth and fragments of bones are found; but coming down to the pit of the cave, you are every where surrounded by a vast heap of animal remains. The bottom of this cave is paved with a stalactical crust of near a foot in thickness; large and small fragments of all sorts of bones are scattered every where on the surface of the ground, or are easily drawn out of the mouldering rubbish. The very walls seem filled with various and innumerable teeth and broken bones. The stalactical covering of the uneven sides of the cave does not reach quite down to its bottom, by which it plainly appears that this vast collection of animal rubbish some time ago filled a higher space in the cave, before the bulk of it sunk by mouldering.

This place is in appearance very like a large quarry of sandstones; and, indeed, the largest and finest blocks of osteolithical concretes might be hewn out in any number, if there was but room enough to come to them, and to carry them out. This bony rock has been dug into in different places, and every where undoubted proofs have been met with, that its bed, or this osteolithical stratum, extends every way far beneath and through the limestone-rock, into which and through which these caverns have been made, so that the queries suggesting themselves about the astonishing numbers of animals buried here confound all speculation. Along the sides of this cavern are some narrower openings, leading into different smaller chambers, of which it cannot be said how deep they go. In some of them, bones of smaller animals