The Life of the Bee 



sumed before death ; and incapable there- 

 fore of achieving the first stage of its 

 transformation, it dies in its turn, adher- 

 ing to the skin of the egg, or adding itself, 

 in the sugary liquid, to the number of 

 the drowned. 



[78] 



This case, though rarely to be followed 

 so closely, is not unique in natural history. 

 We have here, laid bare before us, the 

 struggle between the conscious will of the 

 triongulin, that seeks to live, and the 

 obscure and general will of nature, that 

 not only desires that the triongulin should 

 live, but is anxious even that its life should 

 be improved, and fortified, to a degree 

 beyond that to which its own will impels 

 it. But, through some strange inadver- 

 tence, the amelioration nature imposes sup- 

 presses the life of even the fittest, and the 

 Sitaris CoUetes would have long since dis- 

 278 



