2 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



load of sweets, their only relaxation from this arduous 

 toil being domestic work, such as tending the young, 

 building the comb, and keeping the nest clean and 

 tidy. 



The supposition that the humble-bee worker is 

 less industrious than the honey-bee is erroneous : 

 she labours with the same zeal and tireless energy, 

 never ceasing until, worn out, she fails one day to 

 return home, and, becoming drowsy and senseless, 

 passes out of existence in the cold of the succeeding 

 night. It is true that in a colony of humble-bees 

 the workers are not nearly so numerous as in a 

 bee-hive, but it is some compensation that they are 

 of a larger size than honey-bees, that they begin 

 field - work at an earlier age, that their hours of 

 labour are longer, commencing earlier in the morn- 

 ing and continuing until later at night, and that they 

 are more hardy, minding less the spells of wind and 

 rain, cloud and cold from which no English spring 

 or summer is free. 



One gets a good idea of the ceaseless industry of 

 a colony of humble-bees by watching for a while the 

 mouth of the hole leading to the domicile. Though 

 the total population may not exceed one or two 

 hundred, a minute seldom goes by without several 

 departures and arrivals, and two bees will often 

 return together or pass one another : almost all the 

 returning bees have their hind legs laden with pollen 

 and their abdomens distended with nectar. 



Fanciful writers have likened a colony of bees to 

 a kingdom or city : in reality it is an ordinary family, 



