Nature.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XX, Issue 1385, 10 September 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

Nature.

Bees as Adversaries.

Those who have personal knowledge and experience of bee-culture will bear out the remark that bees are not particular as to the size or the position of tbe home in which they choose to dwell, so that it suffices for them to" carry on with security their wonderful operations. In their wild state cavities of rocks and hollow trees are alike available : and in their domestic condition they have no preference for a straw castle over a house of wood, nor for a wooden house over a straw castle.

The bee, which, while under proper treatment, is one of man's iSrst friends proves, when molested, a terrible foe. Allusion k made to this by Moses, in hia story of what befell the Israelites in their sojourn in the wilderness. " The Amoritcs came out against you, and chased yon as bees do, and destroyed you." The strength and force of their sting is such as to enable them to pierce the skin of the horse and other largo animals, and kill them. Their ordinary speed when in flight is from sixty to eighty miles an hour, and they have been known to fly past the windows of an express train when travelling at full speed in the same direction. The bee's manner of attack is to dash straight at the object aimed at ; and commonly, when excited by the presence of some meddling person, they will attack the face, aiming especially at the eyes. When the thousands which inhabit a hive are aroused by the sound of alarm — well understood by all the inmates — to repel an invader, they sally forth with a courage and determination which none can withstand, attacking their foes on every side with a fury it is impossible to resist. King David must have witnessed just such a scene, which he reproduces in his description of tbe fierce attacks of his bitter and unrelenting foe : ".All nations compassed me about ; they compassed me about like bees."

Eeccntly, the mishap of a porter in handling a box of bees in transit by railway created an arausing.and rather alarming scene at the station. There was a general stampede of passengers and officials flying in every direction chased by tbe infuriated bees. Catching the queen and placing her in the box, restored confidence and quiet, for, flocking loyally to her standard, the whole colony returned to the case, which was then sent on its way. But even this is a small affair compared with what is related in ancient history ofporsons being driven from their habitations, and the inhabitants of an entire town bein^ compelled to flee before myriads of bees. iEHanus. who flourishel about 200 A. D., gives an instance of this in one of his seventeen books on animals. Mungo Park, the African traveller, mentions a modern instance which took place near I>ooproo ; '-We had no sooner unloaded the asses than some of the people being in search of honej', inopportunely disturbed a large swarm of bees. They came -out in large numbers, and attacked men and beasts at the same time. Luckily, most of the asses wore loose, and galloped up the valley ; but the horses and people were very much, stung, and obliged to scamper off in all directions. In faot, in half an hour the bees seemed to put an end to our journey. In the evening, when they became less troublesome and we could venture to collect our cattle, we found many of them much stung and swelled about the head. Three asses were missing ; one died in. the evening, another next morning. Oar guide lost his horse, and many o v f the people were much stung about the head and face."

Persistence of the Beaver. — The quickness with which a colony discovers a wholesale attompt against their peace is astonishing ; yet if their numbers are undisturbed, or diminished but gradually, even the presence of civilization will not drive them them from their haunts. To-day beaver are returning to streams in Michigan, long ago abandoned by their race, simply because they find themselves unmolested, the demand for beaver-peltry being slight, and the prices paid out of all proportion to the labor entailed in trapping. It has been said that, if a dam or house be once injured by the hand of man, the colony at once disappears. But that this is fallacious is proved by the following : Twenty-two miles from Marquette, Mich., on the Carp Eiver, a beaver colony began the erection of a new dam. Though the embankment of a railway ran nearly parallel with the stream, and trains passed backward anJ forward daily, they seemed in no way disturbed, and worked steadily on until the water had risen a foot or more. The trackmaster, observing that this endangered the line — for the embankment had been utilized as a wing of the dam — ordered the water to be drawn off. But the following clay the beavers had repaired the dam cnt through, and the water was its former height. Again and again and again was the dam cut through, and as often would it be repaired. All in all, it was cut and repaired some fifteen or twenty time 3 ere the beavers were sufficiently discouraged to abandon their attempts. White Sparrows— lnstead of the ordinary brownish gray, which i 3 their prevailing color, every twelve or fifteen of the thousands of sparrows in Macon are white. Pro- ! fessor Willett of Mercer University has made a close study of insectivorous birds, and when this fact was brought to his attention he supposed the white sparrows were merely albinos. Nature plays her freaks in all classes of the animal creation, and scatters albinos among men, beasts and birds. Often in a big drove of blackbirds a white one is found. But the white sparrows at Macon are too-numerous to be accounted for on the theory of chance, which would explain the presence of one in a thousand. They are exactly like their companions in every respect save color, and there is no evidence that the Jwhite and dark sparrows have crossed ; they are all either solid white or solid brown.