BREEDING. 69 



MODE OP LAYING EGGS DESCRIBED. 



Mr. Dunbar, an eminent Scotch apiarian, in a 

 communication to the Edinburgh Philosophical Mag- 

 azine, gives an account of the queen's manner of 

 depositing eggs, which agrees so nearly with my 

 own observations, that I give it in his own words. 

 He states that when the queen is about to lay, she 

 first puts her head into the cell (apparently to assure 

 herself that it is in proper condition to receive the 

 egg), and remains in that position for a second or 

 two ; she then withdraws her head, and curving her 

 body downward inserts her tail into the cell ; in a 

 few seconds she turns half round upon herself and 

 withdraws, leaving an egg behind her, sticking to 

 the bottom of the cell by a kind of glue or sticky 

 substance, with which she seems to be provided for 

 the purpose of holding it in its proper place until 

 hatched. When she lays a considerable number she 

 does it equally on each side of the comb, those on 

 one side being exactly opposite to those on the other, 

 as the relative position of the cells will admit ; the 

 effect of this is to produce a concentration and econ- 

 omy of heat for developing the various changes of 

 the brood. 



DESCRIPTION OP THE EGGS. 



The eggs of bees are of an oblong or oval shape, 

 with a slight curvature, and of a bluish white color, 

 about the size of those which are laid by the butter- 

 fly upon cabbage leaves, and are composed of a thin 

 membrane, filled with a whitish liquor. They remain 

 unchanged in figure or situation in the cell for four 



