I INTRODUCTION 3 
although a large one. There is the mother, whom 
we call the queen; and who lays the eggs. Her 
daughters, the workers, do not become independent 
as soon as they are old enough to be useful, but, as 
has been remarked, devote their energies to sup- 
porting the family and rearing their younger brothers 
and sisters. One of the peculiarities of the bee family 
is that all the work is done by the female members. 
The father has died long before his children are 
born. The sons are idle, contributing nothing to 
the stores of the colony ; in the honey-bees’ family 
they are maintained entirely at the expense of the 
colony, and, when food grows scarce, they are 
turned out to die, but the humble-bee drones 
maintain themselves, quietly taking their departure 
from the nest as soon as they are able to fly. 
By far the most interesting individual in the 
humble-bee family is the queen, because of the very 
eventful life she leads. At first her duties include 
those of the workers, her brood depending upon her 
for everything—food, warmth, and protection from 
enemies. She nurses it with as much motherly 
devotion, industry, and patience as we see displayed 
by many birds and mammals in the care of their 
young: she thus shows much greater capacity and 
higher intelligence than the queen honey-bee, who, 
fed and attended by workers throughout her life, is 
not only incapable of providing for herself, but pays 
no attention whatever to her offspring, and is merely 
a machine for laying eggs in enormous numbers. 
The humble-bee and the honey-bee are the only 
