5*4 
THE fi£E. 
queen, which Virgil, and the other writers of antiquity, 
have charged with all the cares of government, is indeed 
bufily occupied, but in funftions of a different kind ; and 
thefe are, the production of a vad number of eggs, which 
die continues to drop, one after another, into the empty 
cells, during a confiderable part of the fummer. This 
animal, which is fo amazingly productive, on being open- 
ed, has been found to contain upwards of five thoufand 
eggs, all of a fize fufiicient to be perceptible. If we 
make allowance for thofe that were already dropped, and 
many more not yet formed fo as to become perceptible, 
we fhall no longer deem it incredible, that this animal 
fhould in one feafon become the mother of fo many thou- 
fands. The moil numerous hive is far inferior to the 
number of fpawn that have been taken from the belly of 
a fmall fifh. During the whole time that the female 
goes from cell to cell depofiting her eggs, flie is accom- 
panied by the working bees, who tend her with the mod 
officious care. And as the males and females are pro- 
duced by her of a fuperior fize to the reft, the working 
bees, as if apprifed of the circumdance, condruCl a few 
cells larger than the red ; and what is dill more remark- 
able, the female herfelf knows which of the embryos are 
to become of her own lex, and accordingly depofits them 
in cells of a fuitabie capacity. The cell which is to con- 
tain the future queen bee is of a ftructure different from 
all the red ; and in building it, the labourers abandon 
the hexagonal diape which is bed adapted to the faving 
of labour, and of wax ; nothing, in this inftauce, feems 
to cod them too dear': The cradle of their future queen 
confumes as much as a hundred or a hundred and fitty of 
the ordinary cells. 
From 
