1S8 
Rev.’ Mr Dunbar's Ohseo'vations 07h Bees*. 
10 o’clock. As I anticipated, the fate of the young queen is 
decided. Her body had dropped lifeless from the surrounding 
circle to the bottom of the hive. It is considerably smaller in 
girth than the reigning queen, but as long. Her belly, which 
in a full grown one is of a dusky yellow, is in this rather of a 
pale reddish cast. Her legs, like those of the rest of the royal 
race, are of a dark orange colour, and her whole figure bears 
the unequivocal stamp of royalty, though originally destined for 
a plebeian station. 
From this experiment, I am Warranted in drawing two con- 
clusions. The first is. That those naturalists are correct, who 
have asserted that the queen or mother-bee lays only two kinds 
of eggs, those of drones and of workers; that the egg which 
she lays in a royal cell, would, if deposited in a common one, 
produce a working bee; and that the egg she lays in a common 
cell, when hatched, can, by a peculiar mode of treatment, be 
converted by the bees into a queen. This fact, though to this 
day a matter of doubt, was ascertained years ago by our coun- 
tryman Bonnar, whose acuteness led him to the very verge of 
the greatest discoveries that have yet been made in the natural 
history of bees. 
The second conclusion I am authorised to draw from this ex- 
periment, militates strongly against the opinion and observations 
of Huber, on the combats of queens. Here were two cases, in 
which one, at least, of these great personages had an opportuni- 
ty of shewing her prowess; but she seemed to be not at all 
blood-thirsty, and we must allow, that it is not consistent with 
tlie welfare of an empire, for the occupier <of the throne to risk 
her personal safety in combating the enemies of the state. 
I have great confidence in the veracity of Huber, and am 
satisfied he saw what he affirms, and that he saw it oftener than 
once ; for otherwise he would not have spoken so decidedly on 
the subject. My experiment, however, establishes the fact, that, 
in some cases at least, the reigning queen leaves it entirely to the 
working bees to despatch her rivals. 
Apple G ARTH Maxse, \ 
21st August 18S0. J 
