Remedy for the Sting of the Bee.-The stings of bees are more virulent than even those of wasps, and are sometimes attended with violent effects. As the sting is barbed, it is generally left in the wound.When a person is stung by a bee, the sting should be instantly extracted. The wound should be sucked, and afterwards washed with cold water, or still better with salt and water; then apply a liniment, consisting of two parts of olive oil, and one part of volatile alkali (i. e.), spirits of hartshorn, liquor of ammonia, or sal volatile (aromatic spirit of ammonia), whichever may happen to be at hand. At the same time, five, or even ten drops of either of the last mentioned ammoniacal preparations, may be given internally in a little orange-flower water, or other agreeable fluid. Even if the sting has not been extracted, the liniment should be used. An application of goulard-water, or a cold saturnine poultice, has been sometimes effectual. A solution of indigo in water is a simple, but said to be an expeditious remedy. Honey and oil have also been used with advantage. Powdered chalk mixed with water to the consistence of a paste, and rubbed for a few minutes on the part stung, has not only been found effectual for the cure of the stings of bees, but also those of wasps and gnats.-Jennings's Family Cyclopædia, art, BEE-STING.

The instinct and economy of the ant (formica) are scarcely less wonderful than those of the bee; to these we have several times alluded in the former volumes of Time's Telescope: want of space alone compels us to confine our attention to some few anecdotes of its ingenious and indefatigable labours, the result of some observations by an eminent naturalist. Every ant's nest has a straight hole leading

of our young friends, a pretty trifle in the shape of a little Poem, entitled the Monarchy of the Bees, illustrated by Notes, exhibiting some of the most remarkable circumstances in the history of this wonderful insect.

into it about the depth of half an inch, which afterwards runs sloping downwards to the public magazine, where the grains they collect are stored up: this is a different place from that where they rest and eat. Their corn being kept under ground, will shoot and grow, did they not prevent it by biting out the germen or bud before they lay it up; but this they constantly do; for if their corn be examined, no bud will be found therein, nor if sowed in the earth will it ever vegetate: were it, however, to lie continually in the ground, the moisture would occasion it to swell and rot, and make it unfit for food. But these inconveniences they find means to remedy by their vigilance and labour in the following manner: they gather very small particles of dry earth, which they bring out of their holes every sun-shiny day, and place them in the heat. Every one of them brings in her mouth a particle of this earth, lays it by the hole, and then goes to fetch another; so that in the space of a quarter of an hour a vast quantity of such small particles of dried earth are heaped round the hole. Their corn is laid upon this earth when under ground, and covered with the same: when these particles of earth are brought out, they fetch their corn likewise, and place it round this earth, making two heaps about the hole, one of dry particles of earth and the other of grains of corn; last of all, they fetch out the remainder of their dry earth whereon the corn was laid. They never go about this work unless the weather be clear, and the sun very hot, but when both are favourable they perform it almost every day.

The author of this account had found a nest of ants in a box of earth, standing out from a window two stories high; whence they made excursions both upward to the top of the house, where some corn lay in a garret, and downward into a garden which the window overlooked. The situation of this nest obliged them to go up or down a great way before

they could possibly meet with any thing; but he found, notwithstanding, that none of them ever returned empty, but every one brought a grain of wheat, rye, or oats, a small seed, or even a particle of dry earth, if nothing else could be got. Some travelled to the farther end of the garden, and with prodigious labour brought heavy loads from thence. It required four hours, as he learned by frequent observation, to carry a pretty large grain or seed from the middle of the garden to the nest, and he computed therefrom that an ant works as hard as a man who shall carry a heavy load twelve miles a-day.

The pains these ants took to carry grains of corn up a wall to the second story, climbing all the way with their heads downwards, must be exceedingly great. Their weariness was shown by their frequent stops at the most convenient places; and some appeared so fatigued and spent, that they could not reach their journey's end; in which case it was common to see the strongest ants, which had carried home their load, come down again and help them.Sometimes they were so unfortunate as to fall down with their burthen when just in sight of home: when this happened they seldom lost their corn, but carried it up again.

He saw one, he says, of the smallest ants carrying a large grain of wheat with incredible pains: when she came to the box where the nest was, she and her load together tumbled back to the ground. Going down to look for her, he found she had recovered the grain, and was ready to climb up again. The same misfortune befel her three times, but she never let go her hold, nor was discouraged; till at last her strength failing, she was forced to stop, and another ant assisted her to carry home her load to the public stock....

How wonderful is the sagacity of these insects! how commendable their care, diligence, and labour! how generous their assistance of each other for the

service of the community! how noble their public virtue, which is never neglected for the sake of private interest! In all these things they deserve our notice and imitation.-For an account of the extraordinary Architecture of the Ant, as well as for many other interesting particulars of this insect, we refer to Huber on Ants, translated by Dr. J. R. Johnson, 12mo, 1820.

ORDER VI.-DIPTERA.

These are two-winged insects having two poisers or balancers instead of under wings. Gad-flies, gnats, and flies in general, belong to this order.

These insects being furnished with a kind of gimblet, are enabled to pierce through the tough hide of horned cattle, and to deposit their eggs in the backs of the animal; some species also lay their eggs in the nostrils of sheep, while others deposit them in places from which the larvæ as soon as hatched can be conveyed into the intestines of horses'.

The crane-flies (tipula) are common in our pastures from the commencement of spring until the beginning of autumn: they have a great resemblance to gnats, but differ from them by their expanded wings and the want of a long proboscis. The meadow crane-fly or long legs (t. oleracea), although very destructive to the roots and tender shoots of plants, is devoured in great numbers by rooks, jackdaws, starlings, lapwings, and other birds. The yellow-striped tipula forms fig. 6 in our Frontispiece.

The wheat-fly (t. tritici), twelve of which have been observed at one time laying their eggs in a single ear of wheat, would soon become of serious

For some curious information on this subject, consult Mr. Bracy Clark's Treatise on the Bots of Horses and other Animals, 4to, 1815.

injury to mankind, were not their race kept within due bounds by several natural enemies, particularly the ichneumon tipulæ.

The well-known Gaffer Long-legs, so frequently seen in houses in the autumnal evenings, flying about the flame of the candles, and often perishing in the blaze, is the t. rivosa, one of the larger species of this genus.

The tribe of flies (musca) presents many curious species. The common flesh-fly (m. vomitoria) is a viviparous insect, depositing its young, in a living state, on the meat in our shambles and larders. The rapid multiplication of the fly is thus calculated by Leeuwenhoek. Let us suppose that in the beginning of June there shall be two flies, a male and a female, and the female shall lay 144 eggs, which eggs in the beginning of July shall be changed into flies, one half males and the other half females, each of which females shall lay the like number of eggs; the number of flies will amount to 10,000: and supposing the generation of them to proceed in like manner another month, their number will then be more than 700,000, all produced from one couple of flies in the space of three months.' The Hessian fly (m. pupilionis) is very destructive to wheat and rye, and has occasionally been a source of great alarm to our agriculturists. The cheese-fly (m. putris), well known to housewives under the name of hopper, deposits its eggs in the crevices or holes of the cheese, whence those numerous maggots that so much amuse us by their agility and surprising leaps. One of these insects, not a quarter of an inch in length, has been known to leap out of a box six inches deep.

The tabanus tribe produces some insects which are extremely troublesome to animals; they also occasionally annoy their lord and master by sticking to and stinging his legs. The gnat (culex) we have