72 METAMORPHOSIS 



offspring were in safety, they turned their atten- 

 tion to those of the strangers, and carried off these 

 in like manner. These being rather larger and 

 the edge of the tin presenting some difficulty in 

 carrying them, they were generally handled by 

 two, one of which approached from below and 

 eased the egg, while the other climbed over the 

 wall. 



In a very little time, all the eggs were re- 

 moved. The black ants then attacked the few 

 remaining brown ones left in the tin. They 

 took away the eggs they each carried, and ran off 

 with them, and then began to make prisoners of 

 the ants themselves. The brown ones were bigger 

 and stronger, and resisted valiantly, but the 

 numbers were too strong for them. Four or 

 five blacks surrounded them, seizing their legs and 

 antennae and bore them away, except some, who, 

 struggling manfully, were torn in pieces. 



My woodpecker had to be content with flies 

 which I caught for him, but it was worth the 

 trouble to have witnessed such an interesting 

 scene. 



After this digression I may hark back to the 

 bees. As I said, the eggs are laid each in a separate 

 cell by the queen. Ordinarily, the cells provided 

 for brood are of two kinds. The greater number 

 average across their face five to the inch and are 

 half an inch deep. These are for the worker bees. 

 Drone cells are rather wider, four to the inch, 



