to approach the provision-cells. Thus weakened by hunger and captivity, and disqualified for resistance by the want of a sting, they fall an easy prey to their merciless assailants; and a scene of carnage takes place which it is difficult to describe. The unhappy wretches are seen driven to the bottom of the hive, pursued with such fury, that, in spite of their strength, which is greatly superior to that of their persecutors, and which enables them to drag two or three of their assailants along the board, and even to fly off with them, they are unable to avoid the mortal thrust of their formidable stings, and expire instantaneously from the effects of the poison. But death overtakes them in various forms; for their enemies sometimes seize them by the wings, and with their strong mandibles gnaw them at the roots, and disable them from flying. They may then be seen in numbers crawling on the ground, where they perish from the cold, or are trampled under foot, and devoured by birds or frogs. Such as escape for a while, may be seen flying from destruction, lighting on the shrubs and flowers to enjoy a moment's respite from their terrors; or buzzing about our windows, or wandering about from hive to hive, into one of which they no sooner enter, than certain death awaits them. Nay, so bitter is the fury of their tormentors, that, not satisfied with destroying these unhappy beings themselves, they tear from the cells such of the doomed race as are yet in the state of larvæ, and sucking from their bodies, with instinctive economy, the fluids they contain, cast the
