APIS. 
it would seem as if tlie males were conscious 
of their danger, for they do not rest in the 
mouth of the hive, in either going out or 
coming in, but hurry either in or out : how- 
ever, they are commonly attacked by one, 
two, or three at a time: they seem to make 
no resistance, only getting away as fast as 
possible. The labourers do not sting them, 
only pinch them, and pull them about as if 
to wear them out ; but I suspect it may be 
called as much a natural as a violent death. 
“ When the young are wholly come forth, 
and either the cells entirely filled, or no 
more honey to be collected, then is the 
time or season for remaining in their hives 
for the winter. 
“ Although I have now completed a hive, 
and no operations are going on in the winter 
months, yet the history of this hive is imper- 
fect till it sends forth a new swarm. 
“ As the common bee is very susceptible 
of cold, we find as soon as the cold weather 
sets in, they become very quiet or still, and 
remain so throughout the winter, living on 
the produce of the summer and autumn; 
and, indeed, a cold day in the summer is 
sufficient to keep them at home, more so' 
than a shower in a warm day : and if the 
hive is thin and much exposed, they will 
hardly move in it, but get as close together 
as the comb will let them, into a cluster. 
In this manner they appear to live through 
the winter : however, in a fine day they be- 
come very lively and active, going abroad, 
and appearing to enjoy it, at which time 
they get rid of their excrement : for I fancy 
they seldom throw out their excrement 
when in the hive. 
“ Their life at this season of the year is 
more uniform, and may be termed simple 
existence, till the warm weather arrives 
again. As they now subsist on their sum- 
mer’s industry, they would seem to feed in 
proportion to the coldness of the season ; 
for from experiment, l found the hive grow 
lighter in a cold week than it did in a 
warmer, which led to further experiments. 
“ Although an indolent state is very much 
the condition of bees through the winter, 
yet progress is making in the queen towards 
a summer’s increase. The eggs in the ovi- 
ducts are beginning to svyell, and, I believe, 
in the month of March she is ready to lay 
them, for the young bees are to swarm in 
June : which constitutes the queen bee to 
be the earliest breeder of any insect we 
know. In consequence of this the labourers 
become sooner employed than any other of 
this tribe of insects. This, both queen and 
labourers are enabled to accomplish, from 
Jiving in society through the winter ; and it 
becomes necessary in them, as they have 
their colony to form early in the summer, 
which is to provide for itself for the winter 
following. All this requires the process to 
be carried forward earlier than by any 
other insect, for these are only to have 
young, which are to take care of themselves 
through the summer, not being under the 
necessity of providing for the winter. 
“ The queen bee, as she is termed, has 
excited more curiosity than all the others, 
although much more belongs to the labour- 
ers. From the number of these, and from 
their exposing themselves, they have their 
history much better made out : but as there 
is only one queen, and she scarcely ever 
seen, it being only the effects of her labour 
we can come at, an opportunity has been 
given to the ingenuity of conjecture, and 
more has been said than can well be proved. 
The queen, the mother of all, in whatever 
way produced, is a true female, and different 
from both the labourers and the male. She 
is not so large in the trunk as the male, and 
appears to he rather larger in every part 
than the labourers. The scales on the under 
surface of the belly of the labourers are not 
uniformly of the same colour over the whole 
scale, that part being lighter which is over- 
lapped by the terminating scale above, and 
the uncovered part being darker. This 
light part does not terminate in a straight 
line, but in two curves, making a peak; 
all which gives the belly a lighter colour in 
the labouring bees, more especially when it 
is pulled out or elongated. We distinguish 
a queen from a working bee simply by size, 
and in some degree by colour ; but this last 
is not so easily ascertained, because the dif- 
ference in the colour is not so remarkable in 
the back, and the only view we can eom- 
nipnly get of her is on this part ; but when 
a hive is killed, the best way is to collect all 
the bees, and spread them on white paper, 
or put them into water, in a broad, flat- 
bottomed, shallow, white dish, in which 
they swim, and by looking at them singly 
she may be discovered. As the queen 
breeds the first year she is produced, and 
tiie oviducts never entirely subside, an old 
queen is probably thicker than a new-bred 
one, unless indeed the oviducts and the eggs 
form in the chrysalis state, as in the silk- 
worm* which I should suppose they did. The 
queen is perhaps at the smallest size just as 
she has done breeding ; for as she is to lay 
eggs by the month of March, she must begin 
T g 
