288 ANIMAL LIFE 



little food they soon require further supplies. To 

 meet this demand the queen adopts a new method ; 

 -he opens the cells, discharges from her mouth a 

 little nourishment into them, and then closes up the 

 openings. A little later when the larvae are pupating, 

 the queen adds to her labours by scraping away the 

 waxen wall of the cocoon, and thus helps the first 

 batch to hatch out. This batch is composed of bees 

 similar in most respects to the queen, except in 

 point of their smaller size. They are, in fact, fertile 

 workers, and take part in the extension and nutrition 

 of the colony. Lightened of her garnering labours, 

 the queen leaves the nest but little, and devotes herself 

 almost entirely to the task of laying as the workers 

 produce fresh cells of wax and pollen. Thus, as the 

 summer advances, the bumble-bee's nest, in a bank 

 or under a stone-heap, is composed of active workers 

 (the race most familiar to us) and the queen mother, 

 who rarely leaves the nest. 



In the height of summer, however, a change 

 ensues. By this time the nest presents an irregular 

 appearance. The old cells are never used again as 

 brood-cells, but simply form the foundation for new 

 ones, and are at most stored with pollen and honey, 

 and altered in size and shape to make honey tubs. 

 Moreover, the brood-cells are not of a uniform size. 

 The majority, those that have furnished workers, are 

 the smallest, but they are all empty ; a few excep- 

 tionally large are to produce queens, and between 

 the two extremes are a few of intermediate size, in 



