356 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. X. 



head within, and, seizing the eggs that had been laid, 

 proceeded to devour them with great avidity. The 

 same extraordinary scene was again renewed, and with 

 the same result. After this, one of the small females 

 returned, and covered the empty cells with wax. When 

 the queen-mother was removed, several of the small 

 females contended for the cell with the utmost rage, 

 all endeavouring to lay their eggs in it at the same 

 time, as if conscious that the approaching autumn 

 was hastening the period of their death. 



(358.) The size of the males is intermediate between 

 that of the large and the small females ; they are to be 

 known, also, by their more lengthened, filiform, and 

 slenderer antennae. We learn from Reaumer, that the 

 male humble bees are by no means an idle race, but 

 work in company with the rest in repairing the dwell- 

 ing; and, probably, like the male wasps, it is their 

 peculiar province to keep it clean and neat. 



(359.) The labourers, or working bees, as we have 

 already observed, are the produce of the first eggs laid 

 by the queen-mother in the spring. By this beautiful 

 dispensation of Providence, she is assisted, in a very 

 short time, by a numerous and industrious class of sub- 

 sects, who aid her in all the various duties of the hive. 

 When an individual grub has spun its cocoon, and 

 assumed the chrysalis state, the workers remove all the 

 wax from it ; and so soon as it has attained its perfect 

 state, which usually happens in about five days, the 

 empty cocoons are employed to hold honey or pollen. 

 Into these reservoirs the bees discharge the honey they 

 have collected upon returning from their excursions : 

 this is done by opening their mouths, and contracting 

 their bodies. Sixty of these honey-pots are occasion- 

 ally found in a single nest ; and more than forty are 

 sometimes filled in a day. The humble bees, if they 

 cannot get at the honey contained in a flower by its 

 natural opening, will often have recourse to art to effect 

 their object. For this purpose, they will frequently 

 cut an aperture at the base of the corolla, or even 



