PYGMY WORKERS AND BUILDERS. 115 



After hanging there for a time they set off together to find 

 a new home, leaving a portion still in possession of the old 

 one. Those who take care of bees prepare for this, and 

 have a home ready for the new swarm. 



4. So far, these facts, patent to every observer, have 

 long been well known, but the more minute details of bee 

 life were revealed for the first time about the close of the 

 last century by Francis Huber, the Swiss naturalist, who 

 devoted most of his life to the study of their ways. What 

 is most remarkable about these discoveries is that Huber 

 was blind, and was obliged to see exclusively through the 

 eyes of others. He had a mind, however, wonderfully 

 keen, alert, and well trained, and his affliction obliged him 

 to verify his work at every step, so as to preclude the pos- 

 sibility of mistake. His discoveries, published in 1792, 

 were first received with incredulity, but all subsequent ob- 

 servation has served to confirm them. Indeed, since his 

 time nothing has been added to our knowledge of the bees 

 save the settlement of a few points which he raised, and 

 about which he expressed some doubt. Some of the most 

 interesting of his discoveries are as follows : 



5. The neuter or worker bees are all imperfectly de- 

 veloped females, and, with proper treatment, the larva of 

 any one of them may become a queen. The queen, when 

 perfectly developed, lays its eggs, from which the different 

 kinds of bees are hatched, without mistake, in the cells pre- 

 pared for each ; but when the queen is imperfect she makes 

 mistakes, and deposits drones' eggs in worker cells, and 

 vice versa. The workers, however, rectify these mistakes, 

 and change the cells to meet the new conditions. In one 

 respect, however, they are at fault : if a drone's egg is de- 

 posited in a royal cell, they dose the poor fellow to death 

 trying to make a queen of him. 



G. Just before the swarming season begins the workers 

 construct royal cells, sometimes to the number of twenty- 



