THE BEE. 103 



she thinks proper to issue from the secret retreats 

 of the hive, where she most usually resides. Upon 

 the union of these two kinds depends all expecta- 

 tions of a future progeny, for the working bees 

 are of no sex, and only labour for another off- 

 spring ; yet such is their attention to their queen, 

 that if she happens to die, they will leave off 

 working, and take no farther care of posterity. 

 If, however, another queen is, in this state of uni- 

 versal despair, presented them, they immediately 

 acknowledge her for their sovereign, and once 

 more diligently apply to their labour. It must 

 be observed, however, that all this fertility of the 

 queen-bee, and the great attentions paid to her 

 by the rest, are controverted by more recent ob- 

 servers. They assert that the common bees are 

 parents themselves ; that they deposit their eggs 

 in the cells which they have prepared ; that the 

 females are impregnated by the males, and bring 

 forth a progeny which is wholly their own. 



However, to go* on with their history, as deli- 

 vered us by M. Reaumur : When the queen-bee 

 has deposited the number of eggs necessary in 

 the cells, the working bees undertake the care of 

 the rising posterity. They are seen to leave off 

 their usual employments, to construct proper re- 

 ceptacles for eggs, or to complete those that are 

 already formed. ' They purposely build little cells, 

 extremely solid, for the young, in which they 

 employ a great deal of wax ; those designed for 

 lodging the males, as was already observed, are 

 larger than the rest, and those for the queen-bees 

 the largest of all. There is usually but one egg 



