Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/34

 availed ourselves of the information dispersed throughout a variety of publications, both ancient and modern, with such additions of our own, as have been acquired by the observation of Bees for a period of thirty years. Our prescribed limits have restricted us, in a great degree, to mere matters of fact, and prevented us often from illustrating our subject, as we might have done with advantage, by reference to the habits and instincts of other of the insect tribes. The same cause has operated as a bar to our indulging so frequently as our inclination would have led us, in those reflections which the wonders in animal economy are so well fitted to excite, and which lead so irresistibly to the conclusion that there is a Wise and Designing Cause. We trust, however, that the facts detailed, will, of themselves, lead the mind of the intelligent reader to such reflections, and thus become the source of a purer gratification than would have been derived from the suggestions of others.

** Some of our readers may be inclined to question the propriety of having placed the Queen-bee upon flowers, on which she is never seen, but it has, throughout our plates, been our endeavour to make them pictorial as well as scientifically correct, the more necessary in a volume such as the present, where our materials are rather scanty, a loss, however, fully compensated by the extraordinary interest in the subject itself.