32 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. I. 



divided the swarm, the largest portion was without 

 a queen — these he placed in a flat and commodious 

 habitation, giving - them the means of free egress and 

 ingress. The number of those who went into the 

 fields was very limited, and these returned unladen 

 with any of the fruits of their labour. 



Although the days were fine, the number of the 

 workers very great, the hive such as they liked, for 

 they evinced no symptom of a wish to quit it, still 

 not a cell was made, while, during the same space 

 of time, the bees of the little glass hive, although 

 they had but a slender portion of labourers, con- 

 trived to make two little combs. Thus it would ap- 

 pear that all their instincts hinge on the love of 

 offspring. Those bees which possessed a queen, 

 capable of giving birth to thousands of young, pre- 

 pared cells for their dwelling, and honey for their 

 food; and this they effected under every disadvan- 

 tage. Those, on the contrary, which were without 

 a mother-bee, and, therefore, without the hope of a 

 numerous progeny, were content to live from day to 

 day. They went into the fields for their repast, but 

 did not bring back materials which would construct 

 a single cell. It seemed as if they were content 

 with feeding themselves, and had lost all motive to 

 lay up a store of provisions for future purposes. In 

 a word, it was evident that it was not for themselves 

 that they gathered or laboured. 



Wishing to stimulate them to exertion, Reaumur 

 gave them another hive, but they were as tranquil 

 in their new as they had been in their old habitation. 



Their number daily diminished, so that at the end 

 of three weeks scarcely a thousand remained, and 

 the whole of these were one morning found dead at 

 the bottom of the hive. 



This was not a solitary experiment. Reaumur 

 and others have repeated it too often to require fur- 

 ther proof — that the loss of the mother-bee destroys 



