THE HIVE BEE. 41 
than that of a vessel in which the juice can be kept while 
the Bee is at work. 
As soon as the honey-bag is filled, the Bee flies back 
to the hive and disgorges the juice into one of the cells, 
But, during that short sojourn in the insect, the juice has 
undergone a change, and been converted into honey, a 
substance which is quite unlike that from which it was 
formed, and which has an odour and flavour peculiarly its 
own. How this change is wrought is at present unknown, 
for the little bag in which the transformation is made is 
composed of a membrane that seems incapable of exerting 
any influence upon the substance contained within it. 
All food that is eaten by the Bee passes through the 
honey-bag, which is closely analogous to the crop of a bird, 
and it would seem that the honey ought rather to pass into 
the stomach than be disgorged at the will of the insect. 
However, it is well known that many birds feed their young 
by disgorging food, and the Bee is enabled to perform the 
same operation by means of a little valve which leads from 
the honey-bag into the stomach, and is plainly perceptible 
even with the unassisted eye. Under ordinary circum- 
stances, the valve just allows the food to pass gently and 
gradually into the stomach ; but the violent effort, which 
is made in ejecting the food, closes the valve, and only 
allows the honey to flow upwards through the mouth. 
The office of the worker and drone cells is two-fold— 
first, to act as nurseries for the insects while passing through 
their preliminary stages, and next to serve as repositories 
for food, whether liquid or solid. The egg of the Queen- 
Bee is placed nearly at the bottom of the cell, exactly on 
the angle where the points of the lozenges meet. It is soon 
hatched into a little white grub, which is assiduously fed 
by the nurses, and grows with wonderful rapidity. As soon 
as it has eaten its last larval meal, it spins a silken cover 
F 
