112 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
or bee in the larval state. Nevertheless, on the 
hive being opened after a further period of eighteen 
days, one new queen-cell containing an egg was 
discovered. And this egg duly hatched out into 
a fine, well-developed queen-bee. Assuming the 
facts to be true, and they seem to be incontro- 
vertible, there is only one inference to be drawn 
from this: some enterprising bee of the colony 
must have gone to another hive and either begged, 
borrowed, or stolen a worker-egg. Apiarian 
scientists very rightly hesitate to ascribe to the 
honey-bee surpassing ingenuity of this kind on 
the testimony of a single case, however well 
authenticated. But other instances are on record 
nearly as indubitable, and as it is an unquestioned 
fact that worker-bees will carry eggs about from 
comb to comb within the space of their own hive, 
it does not seem wholly incredible that they may 
visit other hives in the immediate neighbourhood, 
especially when impelled to extra resourcefulness 
by so vital a need. The whole question is inter- 
esting in more ways than one, as it seems to bear 
very trenchantly on the problem of “ Reason 
versus Instinct,” now busy in the thoughts of 
most. modern naturalists. 
In whatever way the egg for the queen-cell 
may be furnished by the stock intending to raise 
a new mother-bee, the first sign of life is always 
the same—a tiny, white, elongated speck, glued 
on end to the base, or what must rather be called 
