NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 65 



3d. Its size, shape, and color are greatly changed ; its 

 lower jaws are shorter, its head rounder, and its abdomen 

 without the receptacles for secreting wax ; its legs have 

 neither brushes nor baskets, and its sting is more curved, 

 and one-third longer (PI. XVHI.) than that of a worker. 



4th. Its instincts are entirely changed. Reared as a 

 worker, it would have thrust out its sting at the least 

 provocation ; whereas now, it may be pulled limb from 

 limb without attempting to sting. As a worker, it would 

 have treated a queen with the greatest consideration ; but 

 now, if brought in contact with another queen, it seeks to 

 destroy it as a rival. As a worker, it would frequently 

 have left the hive, either for labor or exercise ; as a queen, 

 it never leaves it after impregnation, except to accompany 

 a new swarm. 



5th. The term of its life is remarkably lengthened. As 

 a worker, it would not have lived mom than six or seven 

 months ; as a queen, it may live seveV^M*:.ight times as 

 long. All these wonders rest on the>onTpregnable basis 

 of demonstration, and instead of being witnessed only by 

 a select few, may now, by the use of the movable-comb 

 hive, be familiar sights to any bee-keeper who prefers an 

 acquaintance with facts, to caviling and sneering at the 

 labors of others.* 



* A brief extract from the celebrated Dr. Boerhaave's memoir of Swammerdam, 

 should put to blush the arrogance of those superficial observers, who are too wise 

 in their own conceit to avail themselves of the knowledge of others. 



" This treatise on Bees proved so fatiguing a performance, that Swammerdam 

 never afterwards recovered even the appearance of his former health and vigor. 

 He was almost continually engaged by day in making observations, and as con- 

 stantly by night in recording them by drawings and suitable explanations. 



" His daily labor began at six in the morning, when the sun afforded him light 

 enough to survey such minute objects ; and from that hour till twelve, he continued 

 without interruption, all the while exposed in the open air to the scorching heat 

 of the sun, bareheaded, for fear of intercepting his sight, and his head in a manner 

 dissolving into sweat under the irresistible ardors of that powerful luminary. And 

 If he desisted at noon, it was only because the strength of his eyes was too much 



