BEE, 
417 
her train, and the whole hive seems in commotion, 
hanging together by their legs, so that in less than 
a minute they form a large veil, behind which it is 
impossible to discover any thing th^t passes. This 
is a very odd ceremony ; but the fact seems well 
established, though it will be difficult to assign any 
good reason for its performance. It is in these 
rounds that the queen lays her eggs, proceeding 
from one chamber to the other, till her task is 
finished. 
As this is a bee of importance, it will be proper 
to pay her all due respect : we shall therefore give 
a particular description of her form, for which we 
must stand indebted to Mr. Hunter, who has taken 
much pains to observe every thing relating to these 
wonderful insects. His account is as follows : 
" 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 be much 
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 overlapped 
by the terminating scale above, and the uncovered 
part being darker ; this light part does not termi- 
nate 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. 
“ The tongue of the female is considerably shorter 
VOL. II. 2E 
