283 THE BEE. 



motions, and runs very fast ; but when pregnant with eggs, 

 she becomes very large, and her body is heavy. 



The working or common bee is smaller than either the 

 queen or the drone bee ; and, as well as these, consists of 

 three parts, viz : the head, which is attached by a narrow 

 kind of neck to the rest of the body; the breast or middle 

 part; and the belly, which is nearly separated from the 

 breast by an insection or division, and connected with'. it 

 by another narrow neck or junction. There are two eyes 

 in the head, of an oblong figure, black, transparent, and 

 immoveable. The mouth and jaws, like those of some 

 species of fish, open to the right and left, and serve instead 

 of hands, to carry out of the hive whatever encumbers or 

 offends them. In the mouth there is a long proboscis, or 

 trunk, with which the bees suck up the sweets from the 

 flowers. They have four wings fastened to their middle 

 part, by which they are not only enabled to fly with heavy 

 loads, but also to make those well-known sounds and hum- 

 mings to each other that are supposed to be their only form 

 of speech. They have also six legs fastened to their mid- 

 dle. The two foremost cf these are the shortest, and with 

 these they unload themselves of their treasures. The two 

 in the middle are somewhat longer, and the two last are 

 longest. On the outside of the middle joint of these last, 

 there is a small cavity in the form of a narrow spoon, in 

 which the bees collect by degrees those loads of wax they 

 carry home to their hives. This hollow groove is peculiar 

 to the working bee. Neither the queen nor the drones have 

 any resemblance of it. The tibiae of the hind legs are 

 ciliated, and transversely streaked on the inside. Each 

 foot terminates in two hooks, with their points opposite to 

 each other; in the middle of these hooks there is a little 

 thin appendix, which, when unfolded, enables the insects 

 to fasten themselves to glass, or the most polished bodies. 

 This part they likewise employ for transmitting the 'small 

 particles of crude wax, which they find upon flowers, to 



