VOL. LXXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 181 



and that the queen has no other business but to lay the eggs : they are the only 

 bees that bring in materials ; the only ones we observe busy abroad ; and indeed 

 the idea of any other is ridiculous, when we consider the disproportion in num- 

 bers, as well as the employment of the others, while the working bee has 

 nothing to take ofF its attention to the business of the family. They are 

 smaller than either the queen or the males : not all of equal size, though the 

 difference is not very great. 



The queen and the working bees are so much alike, that the latter would 

 seem to be females on a different scale : however this difference is not so observ- 

 able in the beginning of winter as in the spring, when the queen is full of eggs. 

 They are all females in construction, having the female parts^ which are ex- 

 tremely small, and would be easily overlooked by a person not very well ac- 

 quainted with the parts in the queen : this has been observed by Mr. Riem ; 

 indeed one might suppose that they were only young queens, and that they be- 

 came queens after a certain age ; but this is not the case. They all have stings, 

 which is another thing that makes them similar to the queen. From their 

 being furnished with an instrument of defence and offence, they are endowed 

 with such powers of mind as to use it, their minds being extremely irritable; so 

 much so, that they make an attack when not meddled with, simply on suspi- 

 cion, and when they do attack, they always sting ; and yet, from the circum- 

 stance of their not being able to disengage the sting, one should suppose they 

 would be more cautious in striking with it. When they attack each other, they 

 seldom use it, only their pincers : yet I saw two bees engaged, and one stung 

 the other in the mouth, or thereabouts, and the sting was drawn from the body 

 to which it belonged, and the one who was stung ran very quickly about with 

 it ; but I could not catch that bee, to observe how the sting was situated. 



As they are the collectors of honey, much more than what is for their own 

 use, either immediately, or in future, their tongue is proportionably fitted for 

 that purpose : it is considerably longer than that of either the queen or the male, 

 which fits them to take up the honey from the hollow parts of flowers, of con- 

 siderable depth. The mechanism is very curious, as will be explained further on. 



The number of labourers in a hive varies very considerably. In one hive that 

 I killed, there were 3338, in another 4472, in one that died there were 2432. 



That I might guess at the number of bees from a given bulk, I counted what 

 number an ale-house pint held, when wet, and found it contained 21(3o, there- 

 fore, as some swarms will fill 2 quarts, such must consist of near gooo. 



Of the parts concerned in the nourishment nf the bee. — Animals who only 

 swallow food for theniselves, or whose alimentary organs are fitted wholely for 

 their own nourishment, have them adapted to that use only ; but in many, these 

 organs are more common for more purposes, as in the pigeon, and likewise in 



