526 



TOE niYE BEE. 



THE qCEEN BEB. 



Atler collecting a few small drops of honey with iliis, the ammnl 

 carries them to its mouth, and swallows them. From the gullet they 

 pass into the first stomach. '^J'his when filled with honey, assumes the 

 figure of an oblong bladder, the membrane of which is so thin and 

 transparent, that it allows the color of the liquid it contains to be dis 

 tinct.ly seen. As soon as their stomach is fidl, the Bees return directly 

 to the hive, and disgorge into a cell the whole of the honey they have 

 collected. It, however, not unfrequently happens, that on its way to 

 the hive the Bee is accosted by a hungry companion. How the one 

 maiiages to communicate its wants to the other, is not known. But 

 the fact is certain, that when two Bees meet in this situation, they 

 mutually stop, and the (me whose stomach is full of honey, extends 

 its trunk, opens its month, and like a ruminating animal, forces up 

 the honey. The hungry Bee, with the point of its trunk, sucks the 

 lioney from the other's mouth. \.\'heu not 

 6top])ed on the road, the Bee, as before stfited, 

 proceeds to the hive, and in the same manner 

 offers its honey to those who are at work, as if 

 it meant to prevent the necessity of their quit- 

 ting their labor in onler to go in (piest uf food. 

 In bad weather, the liees leed on the honey laid 

 up in open cells; but they never touch their 

 reservoirs, while their companions are enabled to sup])ly them with 

 fresh honey from the fields. The mouths of those cells, which are 

 degtined 'for preserving honey during the winter, they always cover 

 with a lid or thin plate of wax. 



How numerous soever the Bees in one swarm may appear to be 

 they all originate 

 from a single pa- 

 rent. It is indeed 

 surjirising, that one 

 snudl insect should, 

 in a few month.s, 

 give birth to so 

 many young-ones; 

 but, on opening 

 her body at a cer- 

 tain season of the 

 year, eggs to the 

 number of many 

 tliousands rnay be 

 fcund contained in it. 



The queen is easily distinguished from the rest by the size an.'. 

 shape of her body. C)ii her de}tends the welfare of the whole com- 

 munity : and, bv the attention that is paid to all her movements, it is 

 ?vident how much they depend on her security. At times, attended 

 by a numerous retinue she is seen in the act of marching from cell 

 to cell, plunging the extremity of her body into each of them, and 

 .laving in each an cg'^. 



A day or two afterthis egg is deposited, the grub is excluded from 



^ 



THE QUE£N BIE AND PREnNAVT Q' EEH BtS. 



