The Progress of the Race 



ning of March the impregnated female 

 who has survived the winter starts to con- 

 struct her nest, either underground or in 

 a bush, according to the species to which 

 she belongs. She is alone in the world, 

 in the midst of awakening spring. She 

 chooses a spot, clears it, digs it and car- 

 pets it. Then she erects her somewhat 

 shapeless waxen cells, stores these with 

 honey and pollen, lays and hatches the 

 eggs, tends and nourishes the Iarv« that 

 spring to life, and soon is surrounded by 

 a troop of daughters who aid her in all 

 her labours, within the nest and without, 

 while some of them soon begin to lay in 

 their turn. The construction of the cells 

 improves ; the colony grows, the comfort 

 increases. The foundress is still its soul, 

 its principal m^other, and finds herself 

 now at the head of a kingdom which 

 might be the model of that of our honey- 

 bee. But the model is still in the rough. 



399 



