74 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 



to my readers, was taken, with some alterations, from " Cot- 

 ton's My Bee Book," to which lam also indebted for the 

 group of bees in the title page.* The dimensions of the 

 cells are considerably reduced : the larger ones, on the right 

 hand of the plate, towards the bottom, are of drone size. 

 One of the royal cells on the right contains an unhatched 

 Queen, from the other which is open at the base, the Queen 

 has emerged. The Queen cell ou the left which is open at 

 the side, is one from which a young Queen has been vio- 

 lently extracted ; the other is in an unfinished state. On 

 the face of the comb is a Queen cell just begun, of the 

 kind constructed when Queens are reared artificially. The 

 natural Queen cells are almost always on the edges of the 

 comb, and the artificial ones, (ihose built to meet some un- 

 expected emergency,) on the face. 



I will give in this connection a descriplion of a highly inter- 

 esting experiment: 



A large hive standing at a distance from any olher colony, 

 was removed in the morning of a pleasant day, to a new 

 place, and another hive containing only empty comb, was 

 put upon its stand. Thousands of workers which were out 

 in the fields, or which left the old hive after its removal, re- 

 turned to the familiar spot. It was affecting to witness their 

 grief and despair : they flew in restless circles about the 

 place where once stood their happy home, entered and left 

 the new hive continually, expressing, in various ways, their 

 lamentations over so cruel a bereavement. Towards even- 

 ing, they ceased to take wing, and roamed in restless pla- 

 toons. In and out of the hive, and over its surface, acting all 

 the time, as though in search of some lost treasure. 1 now 



* Instead of the original motto, " God save the Queen and all the 

 Koyal Family," I have substituted one which seems to me to be much 

 more in accordance with nature and truth. 



