HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 59 



or jaws, like those of some species of fish, open to 

 the right and left, and serve instead of hands to carry 

 out of the hive whatever incumbers or offends them ; 

 they are also provided with a proboscis or trunk, with 

 which they suck up honey or any other desired sub- 

 stance, and again deposit it in the combs ; it is used 

 at times as a trowel in building combs, placing with 

 it the minute scales of wax in their appropriate 

 places, and giving the desired polish to the cells. The 

 thorax, or middle part between the head and the ab- 

 domen, which is nearly separated from the latter by 

 an insection or division, connected by a very narrow 

 neck or junction ; to this four wings, a pair on each 

 side, are attached, by which they are not only enabled 

 to fly with heavy loads, but also to make those well 

 known sounds by which they doubtless communicate 

 with each other, serving as a kind of speech. They 

 have also six legs, three on each side ; the foremost 

 pair of these is the shortest — with these they unload 

 the little pellets from the baskets on their thighs ; 

 the middle pair is somewhat longer, and the hind- 

 most pair longest of all; on the outside of the 

 middle joint of these last there is a small cavity, in 

 the form of what a Scotchman would call a marrow 

 spoon, by some it is called a basket, in which they 

 collect those loads of pollen which are frequently 

 seen going into the hive, and by many supposed to 

 be wax. This basket or hollow groove in the thigh 

 is peculiar to the worker ; neither queen nor drone 

 has any thing of the kind. The belly is composed 

 of six rings or folds, and contains, besides the intes- 



