132 DEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



basket, and vice versa. The legs are crossed, and 

 the metatarsus naturally scrapes its comb face on 

 the upper edge of the opposite tibia, in the direc- 

 tion from the base of the combs towards their tips. 

 These upper hairs standing over wp, B, or close to 

 ti, A (which are opposite sides of the same joint), 

 are nearly straight, and pass between the comb teeth. 

 The pollen, as removed, is caught by the bent-over 

 hairs, and secured. Each scrape adds to the mass, 

 until the face of the joint is more than covered, and 

 the hairs just embrace the pellet, as we see it in 

 cross section at G. The worker now hies homewards, 

 and the spine, as a crowbar, does its work. 



Neither queens nor drones gather, and so their legs 

 are quite differently formed. The queen leg (B, 

 Fig. 24) shows, by its outline, that the worker is 

 a female; while the drone leg (A), rounded and 

 smaller, and not carrying even the rudiments of the 

 specialized hairs of the worker, is unlike either. An 

 explanation here becomes necessary, for it may be 

 remarked, that my drone and queen leg, according to 

 some authors, have changed places. It is so, but 

 for the following reason : An old French entomologist 

 published some capital drawings of bees' legs, but 

 his numbering read backwards, since the revers- 

 ing action of the printing press had been forgotten. 

 He was copied by Blanchard, who, failing to note 

 his authority's mistake, called the drone leg the queen 

 leg, while the latter went to the credit of the drone. 

 Dr. Duncan translated Blanchard,* and, quite inno- 

 cently, and very pardonably, repeated Blanchard's 



* " The Transformations of Insects." Cassell, Pelter, and Galpin. 



