OR, MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 



129 



weeks, after which they were purely mated, and every one of 

 the two hundred chickens were without any Brahma marks. 

 Even the legrs were absolutely clean. I^ikewise, thousands of 

 drones, reared from pure Syrian queens, but mated to Italian 

 drones, showed not the slig^htest Italian taint. I believe teleg- 

 ony is a very doubtful hypothesis. 



THE NEUTERS, OR WORKER-BEES. 



These, called " the bees " by Aristotle, and even by Wild- 

 man and Bevan, are by far the most numerous individuals of 



Fig. 51. 



Worker-Bee much magnified, from Newman. 



the hive— there being- from 15,000 to 40,000 in every good col- 

 ony. It is possible for a colony to be even much more popu- 

 lous than this. (Lubbock says that there are often 50,000 

 worker-ants in a nest.) These are also the smallest bees of 

 the colony, as they measure but little more than one-half of 

 an inch in length (Fig. 51.) As already stated, it takes about 



