The Life of the Bee 
more economical and capacity greater. 
We have seen, too, that the queen prefers 
to lay in the smaller cells, for which she is 
incessantly clamouring. When these are 
wanting, however, or till they be provided, 
she resigns herself to laying her eggs in 
the large cells she finds on her road. 
These eggs, though absolutely identical 
with those from which workers are 
hatched, will give birth to males, or 
drones. Now, conversely to what takes 
place when a worker is turned into queen, 
it is here neither the form nor the capac- 
ity of the cell that produces this change ; 
for from an egg laid in a large cell and 
afterwards transferred to that of a worker 
(a most difficult operation, because of 
the microscopic minuteness and extreme 
fragility of the egg, but one that I have 
four or five times successfully accom- 
plished) there will issue an undeniable 
male, though more or less atrophied. Jt 
222 
