88 STATEMENTS OF MR. DUNCAN. 



absurdity of his statements, and thereby in a great degree 

 depreciated the general value of his discoveries. It is, how- 

 ever, not a little singular that, in numerous cases, Mr. Duncan 

 clearly perceives the absurdity of Huber's statements : he 

 acknowledges that they are at variance with all credibility, 

 and that they require to be confirmed, before they can be 

 admitted as positive facts into the natural history of the 

 bee. With this conviction on his mind, we cannot 

 refrain from expressing our surprise, that he should have 

 been so frequently led away into the commission of the 

 same inconsistencies and contradictions, which abound 

 in the pages of Huber, and which excite in us the suspi- 

 cion, that Mr. Duncan is not a true practical apiarian, 

 but that his work has been compiled from the crude 

 and undigested theories of visionary naturalists. In 

 confirmation of the truth of the foregoing remarks, we 

 have only to consult Mr. Duncan on the manner in 

 which the queen lays her eggs, and on referring to page 61 

 we read, " In the operation of laying, which we have 

 a thousand times witnessed, the queen puts her head 

 into a cell, and remains in that position a second or two, 

 as if to ascertain whether it is in a fit state to receive 

 the deposit. She then withdraws her head, curves her 

 body downwards, inserts her abdomen into the cell, and 

 turns half round on herself ; having kept this position 

 for a few seconds, she withdraws her body, having in 

 the meantime laid an egg. The egg itself, which is attached 

 to the bottom of the cell by a glutinous matter with which 

 it is imbued, is of a slender, oval shape, slightly curved, 

 rather more pointed in the lower end than in the other." 

 Now, with the exception of the queen turning half round 

 on her body, which must have a truly pantomimic effect, 

 but which is in truth nothing more nor less than a genuine 

 Huberian illusion, incomprehensible, however, to every one 

 in the least acquainted with the structure of a cell, the 



