THE BEE IN SPRINO. 6 



clustering nurses, until the larva, transformed into a nymph 

 shall, one week later, emerge a perfect bee to share the labours 

 and to participate m the busy, and often hazardous enterprises 

 of the colony. (204). 



9. Work Out of Doors commences. — ^Meanwhile the queen 

 has enlarged the circles of her brood, and has ventured upon 

 fresh combs. Her downy progeny are bursting their cells on 

 every side ; the population is increasing, and the temperature 

 of the hive rises rapidly. Outside, a spirit of resurrection has 

 entered into nature, in whose scenes of progressive loveliness 

 everything that moves experiences a new joy. 



" The softly warbled song 

 Comes from the pleasant woods, and coloured wings 

 Glance quick in the bright sun that moves along 

 The forest openings." 



Advancing spring has rescued from the embrace of winter the 

 purple anemone and yellow crocus, fresh as the morning dew, 

 and lovelier than the robe of Solomon in the days of his glory; 

 gorse has made the hill-sides g'olden ; hazel, and silex, and 

 dandelion open their attractions around the fields. And from 

 out the hive come the busy workers to gather in the stores 

 kind nature has provided, and in turn, to render her good 

 offices by transfer of the fertilising dust from flower to flower 

 (74). Where nectar is, they sip it ; where pollen, their feathery 

 hairs collect it, and in the little baskets {corhiculce) with which 

 their hindmost legs are furnished (34) they bear it home to 

 feed the larvje. Water also they will find, for breeding cannot 

 progress without it ; and propolis to fasten joints and to exclude 

 unwelcome draughts (75). These safely delivered up to those 

 who work within, they start afresh, nor cease their eager gather- 

 ing until the fading light, or cooling atmosphere warns them 

 that the life required to-morrow must not be sacrificed to-day. 



10. Wax Production and Comb Building — Within the hive 

 there is proceeding a work most truh- marvellous. Those 

 bees whose part it is to supply material for the building of the 

 combs, have fed themselves from stores of honey, and, clinging 

 one to the other in shape of festoons first, to thus facilitate the 

 climbing of the rest, have formed in compact cluster (62). 

 There, motionless, during many hours they hang, retaining and 

 increasing the heat withm the mass until a high temperature 

 is attained ; when upon the ventral plates, or pockets, under 

 the abdomen appear clear scales of wax (37). First transferring 

 these to the mouth for preparation, they hand them over to 

 the builders, who, taking them in their mandibles, construct 

 with them the comb — the masterpiece '' that touches absolute 



