Cradle- Cells. 133 
It would take a long time for anybody 
but a bee to guess what happens next. 
It is rather a peculiar performance, but 
Miss Apis’s performances are usually pe- 
culiar. 
She caps over the cell of the baby-bee. 
It would be difficult to imagine an easier 
way of disposing of a baby,— bottle it up 
like a jar of pickles or a cell of honey. 
It is not much trouble to take care of 
such babies. 
They only need to be kept warm. 
Meantime, the infant thus disposed of 
spins for itself a soft little silken night-cap. 
You see, it has nothing else to do. It 
cannot get anything to eat, and they do 
not give it so much as a rubber ring to 
bite on, as far as I know; so it amuses 
itself spinning a night-cap, or a soft little 
cocoon, about the upper part of its fat 
little bottled-up body. 
Some babies might cry under the circum- 
stances; but I doubt if this baby could do 
