pleased," can hardly be observed without pleasure; while their incessant hum, which often assails our ears in heathery uplands, where nearly all other indications of life have ceased, forms one of the most common of those rural sounds, the entire effect of which is usually so agreeable. "There are few associations of our childhood," it has been recently remarked, "more deep and lasting than those connected with the pursuit and capture of these beautiful creatures, some of which are remarkable for their size, and the rich contrast which they exhibit of velvet black and crimson, with bars of brilliant yellow. This splendid attire, however, saves them not from being rudely handled; and we remember the day when an artificial bink, that is, a little box made of clay, with a piece of glass at one end, and a sprinkling of sugar at the other, contained as many captives in proportion to its size as the black hole at Calcutta."[1]
Although so dissimilar in external aspect, a very close connection in regard to structure can be traced between the hive-bee and the kinds of which we now treat. The respective genera are accordingly placed in juxta-position in systematic arrangements. For a long period these genera, as well as several others, were confounded under the common name of Apis, and it was not till a comparatively recent date, that the humble-bees were separated, and the generic term Bombus applied to them. A different formation of certain parts, entailing a difference in
- ↑ Ency. Brit., Art. Entomology.
