D HUMBLE CREATtJRES. 



have presented to us a number of strange phenomena. 

 How do the workers know that the drone-cells must 

 be constructed (as they are) of larger dimensions 

 than the worker-cells, and that those intended for 

 the reception of the young queens must be still 

 larger and of a different shape? The eggs deposited 

 by the queen, from which the three varieties proceed, 

 are all alike in appearance; nay, those which pro- 

 duce queens and workers are precisely the same in 

 every respect : that can therefore be no guide to the 

 workers in the construction of the cells. Again, how 

 does the queen know when and where to deposit each 

 particular kind of egg ? 



"Instinct" will doubtless be your answer. Pre- 

 cisely so; and although we know but little in this 

 respect, still we may be able to give you, farther on, 

 some information on the subject that you will find 

 new and interesting. 



However, let us suppose the cells made, and the 

 eggs deposited therein and hatched. The larvse, or 

 grubs, do not leave the cells, but are fed by a class of 

 the worker community called by naturalists " Nurse- 

 bees;" and how do you think they are nourished? 

 First, in their earliest infancy, with honey, which 

 we shall find hereafter to be a kind of food that has 

 undergone a partial digestive process in the organs 

 of the worker ; then, as the days of the young ones 

 increase in number, the sagacious nurses mix, and 

 administer to them along with the honey, a quantity 

 of bee-bread, consisting of the pollen of flowers, a 



