XIV. 



INSTINCT. 



In the Honey Bee we find so many and such re- 

 markable instincts that it seems to me impossible 

 that they could have been acquired by the process of 

 evolution. 



I will enumerate some of the most important facts 

 concerning bees, and then draw such conclusions as 

 these facts seem to justify. 



Three kinds of individuals exist in a colony of 

 bees; namely, the queen, whose sole work it is to lay 

 eggs; the drones, or males, whose only function it is 

 to fertilize the queen; and the workers, which are 

 females, undeveloped sexually. 



When a colony of bees first enters a hive which is 

 to become its future home, the workers proceed to 

 rid it of all dirt. Other workers gather propolis, a 

 kind of gum, which they bring to the hive entangled 

 on their legs, which they are unable to remove them- 

 selves, but which is removed by their fellow- workers 

 and placed in the cracks and on internal projections 

 of the hive. Having prepared the hive sufficiently 

 with propolis, the workers gorge themselves with 

 food and suspend themselves in a mass from the top 

 of the hive, in which position they remain for a con- 

 siderable length of time in order to secrete wax. The 

 wax is secreted in sacs in the abdomen, and it exudes 

 in thin plates from between the joints. 



When sufficient wax has been secreted, the bees 



manufacture cells. Each cell is a very perfect hexa- 



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