58 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. III. 



with a piece of honey-comb containing common 

 grubs three or four days old : the worker bees im- 

 mediately set about destroying - some of the common 

 cells ; construct royal cells in their stead ; deposite 

 the grubs in these cells, and administer to them food 

 proper for grubs destined to become queens. This 

 experiment is constantly repeated, and never found 

 to fail. In the proper time a number of young 

 queens is produced; the supernumeraries are de- 

 stroyed; and at length only one survives to govern 

 the hive. Thus wonderfully does nature provide 

 for the preservation of the species — the life of thou- 

 sands of these insects depending on that of a queen. 

 In order to guard against the possibility of exter- 

 mination, she has taught the bee the miracle of con- 

 verting the whole of the instincts and organization 

 of one kind into those of another, by the simple 

 means of providing a different and a more pungent 

 kind of food for the subject of its marvellous expe- 

 riment. There seems, however, to be a natural 

 provision for this change ; for it is found that all the 

 workers are imperfect females, whose organs are 

 not developed : the food simply farthers this deve- 

 lopement. But whether we look to the design or 

 the means used, or the circumstances under which 

 it is effected, it is one of the most striking facts in 

 the whole range of natural history. 



As soon as the queen bee has laid her eggs in the 

 various cells, the nurses are incessantly occupied in 

 watching over the brood. For this purpose, they 

 now forego every other employment. There is 

 usually but one egg deposited in each cell; but 

 when the fecundity of the queen happens to exceed 

 the number of cells already prepared, three or four 

 eggs maybe found crowded together in the same 

 repository. But this is an inconvenience which 

 the working bees will not permit to continue ; they 

 seem to be aware that two young ones placed in 

 the same cell, when they grow larger, would first 



