32 THE HUMBLE-BEE 11 
returns to the brood and nestles under the warm 
body of her parent. About forty-eight hours only 
are needed for her to acquire the handsome, well- 
groomed appearance and the bright rich colours of 
her mother, whom, indeed, she now resembles in 
every way except in her diminutive size. 
The worker humble-bee commences to fly and to 
collect honey and pollen at a very early age. On 
June 18, 1910, at 3 p.m, I happened to examine 
one of my Zapzdarzus nests and saw that no workers 
had emerged. On June 20, at 8 p.m., four workers 
were found in the nest, and one of them had already 
got her full colour. On June 21, at 10.30 AM.,a 
worker, evidently this one, was seen entering the 
nest with pollen on her legs, so that she must have 
been working in the fields when less than three 
days old. The honey-bee worker does not, as a 
rule, begin to gather honey until about the four- 
teenth day after she has emerged. The habit of 
collecting honey from the flowers comes by instinct, 
and is not the result either of experience or learning. 
When the larve are spinning their cocoons the 
queen lays some more eggs, placing them, as always, 
in a little waxen cell, which, however, is now con- 
structed in a convenient place on top of one or two 
of the cocoons that form the sides of the depression 
in which she sits. Further batches of eggs are laid 
at intervals of two or three days, so that in a short 
time both sides of the groove are covered with cells 
containing eggs and young larve. All the eggs are 
laid on one side of the groove, usually two or three 
