HONEYCOMB CONCEALED FOR HALF A CENTURY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, 31 January 1890, Page 2

HONEYCOMB CONCEALED FOR HALF A CENTURY.

«. A remarkable discovery was made at the Cathays Yard of the Tafl Vale Baflway Company. A large elm tree, grown in Gloucestershire, was being cut up into timber when, right in the very-heart, a cavity measuring Bft by 7£in. in diameter was discovered almost completely filled with ' the comb of the honey bee, together with a squirrel's skull. No meTSuTbf ' " aeoeaTld "the hollow was discoverable, neither was decay anywhere apparent, and around the cavity itself no less that fifty « rings/ each ring denoting a year's growth, were counted, the outer bark being, too, without a flaw. The hollow was of uniform size throughout, aid presented the appearance of having W*k practiS^filfod#ith^iie comb, proving that the bees must havt been in possession for several years. Empty combs of the queen bte alse showed that they had swaraied. How the bees got there can only bt guessed, but it is surmised that a squirrel once occupied adeoayed holein the tree, cleared away the decay, occupied the cavity as its home, and there died. Then the bees entered into possession and filled the whole with coa&d, when by some means the entrance, which must have been sma^v^ became stopped, the large quantity of grub and fly being taken as demonstrative tliat tiie nest was not voluuterily descried. Then for fifty yew* the povty of the timber went on. The eritrfince being absolutely obliterated and the hole being hermetically, sealed the comb was preserved from decay fer half a century, to be found at last in the way described. The find a of the greatest interest to naturalists.