273 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
her the whole time. This is done by the Bee ejecting 
the honey from its stomach into the mouth of the Queen. 
When this has been done the Bee goes away, and another 
takes its place. The operation of laying her eggs again 
goes on, and is succeeded by the same mode of feeding — 
the attendant Bees frequently touching the antennas of the 
Queen with their own. When the operation of laying the 
eggs is completed — and it generally occupies sometime — 
the Queen retires to that part of the hive which is most 
filled with Bees. During her progress, the surface of the 
comb is very little intruded upon, and the space seems 
purposely to be left unoccupied. Some few of the cells, 
however, in a brood comb are passed over by the Queen, 
and are afterwards filled either with honey or farina. 
These serve as deposits of food, from which the neigh- 
bouring brood may be fed more readily, as such cells are 
never covered with wax. 
With the hives referred to I have been able to follow 
many of Huber’s experiments, and can bear witness to his 
general accuracy, except in regard to the fecundation of 
the Queen-Bee. I have bestowed much time and pains in 
endeavouring to discover any of the circumstances he men- 
tions relating to this fact, but without success. Neither 
have I ever seen a cell visited by one of the drones after 
the egg had been deposited, which a modern writer has 
asserted they do. I have for many years watched my 
hives with the greatest care and assiduity, but have never 
yet seen the Queen-Bee leave the hive, except at the time 
of swarming. I have also spoken to several experienced 
Bee-masters on the subject, and they are of the same 
opinion with myself — that she never quits it. Her per- 
son is so easily distinguished from the other Bees, by any 
one at all conversant with them, that if the Queen ab- 
sented herself from the hive, in the way Huber describes 
her as doing, it seems next to impossible that she should 
not have been perceived, either on her departure from, or 
on her return to the hive. It is, however, with conside- 
rable diffidence that one would venture to doubt the ac- 
curacy of any statement of Huber’s, especially when the 
objection turns, not upon a contradictory circumstance, but 
upon what mjuself and others have not been able to dis- 
cover. 
Wax is a secretion formed under the scales of the back 
of the insect, from which I have repeatedly seen it exfo- 
liate in small flakes. A considerable degree of heat ap- 
pears to be necessary to produce this secretion, as I have 
always observed it most frequent in hot weather. Other 
writers have maintained that the wax is discharged from 
the abdominal rings or segments of the Bees. This may 
be also the case, but I have never perceived it. 
The vision of Bees seems very imperfect. I have fre- 
quently turned a hive, so as to make the entrance about 
two or three inches from its former position, and have 
then always found the Bees at a loss to gain admittance. 
Indeed they seem more to feel their way than to see it, 
after they have once landed themselves on the board of 
their hives. Their progress through the air is always 
made in a direct line to the hive, and the instinct which 
enables them to find it, amongst forty or fifty others placed in 
a row, and nearly similar to each other, is very striking. 
Mr. Rogers, in his “ Pleasures of Memory,” has a 
pretty idea on this subject: — 
“ The varied scents that charm’d her as she flew,” 
he thinks might point out the way of her return to the 
hive. 
Wasps appear to have a better vision than Bees, though 
it is not easy to assign a reason for this being the case, 
since the construction of the eyes of both insects seems to 
be similar. Derham, in his Physico-theology, has ob- 
served in regard to the eye of the Bee and wasp, “ that 
the cornea and optic nerves being always at one and the 
same distance, are fitted onty to see distant objects, 
and not such as are very nigh, and that the eye will be 
found on examination to form a curious lattice-work of 
several thousand hexagonal lenses, each having a separate 
optic nerve ministering to it, and therefore to be consider- 
ed as a distinct eye.” Wasps, however, certainly seem to 
alight at the entrance of their nests with more accuracy 
than Bees. I have frequently observed this to be the 
case, even when the hole of a wasp’s nest has been in a 
grass field, surrounded with long grass. They alight at 
it with the greatest precision, seldom or never going even 
half an inch either on one side or the other of it, and they 
do this even late in the evening. 
A hive of Bees which have been once much exaspe- 
rated, do not soon forget the injury. This was the case 
with one of my hives, the Bees of which never allowed 
me for two years to come near them while they were 
working, without attacking me, though a neighbouring 
hive would allow me to take almost any liberties with it 
with impunity. Indeed I had familiarized myself so 
much with some of my Bees, that I am convinced they 
knew me, and they always appeared to distinguish me 
from strangers. By constantly standing before the mouth 
of the hive, and allowing vast numbers to fly about and 
settle upon me, and by frequently feeding them, they be- 
came so well acquainted with me, that I had much plea- 
sure in witnessing their attachment, and the confidence 
they placed in me. This affection was mutual, and I al- 
