On a close examination, very few of these black or aged
bees, will be seen at the opening of the spring, as, not having the
stamina of those that are younger, they perish from inability to
encounter the vicissitudes of winter.--_American Farmer's Manual_.
* * * * *
THE ELM.
(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
I shall be obliged to any of your correspondents who can inform me from
whence came the term _witch-elm_, a name given to a species of elm tree,
to distinguish it from the common elm. Some people have conjectured that
it was a corruption of _white elm_, and so called from the silvery
whiteness of its leaves when the sun shines upon them; but this is hardly
probable, as Sir F. Bacon in his "_Silva Silvarum_, or Natural History,
in Ten Centuries," speaks of it under the name of _weech-elm_.
H.B.A.
* * * * *
CROP OF BIRDS.
Besides the stomach, most birds have a membranous sac, capable of
considerable distension; it is usually called a crop, (by the scientific
_Ingluvies_,) into which the food first descends after being swallowed.
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