194 
THE HIVE AND nONICY-BEE. 
days, are found to be untenanted. At the second attempt 
they usually start a larger number, and seldom fail of suc- 
cess. Does practice make them more perfect ? or were 
some of the necessary conditions wanting at first ? 
The following able communication, from the pen of Dr. 
Donhoff, may throw some light on this subject : — “ Dzicr- 
zon states it as a fact, that worker-bees attend more ex- 
clusively to the domestic concerns of the colony in the 
early period of life ; assuming the discharge of the more 
active out-door duties only during the later periods of 
their existence. The Italian bees furnished me with suit- 
able means to test the correctness of this opinion. 
“On the 18th of April, 1855, I introduced an Italian 
queen into a colony of common bees; and on the 10th of 
May following, the first Italian workers emerged from the 
cells. On the ensuing day, they emerged in great numbers, 
as the colony had been kept in good condition by regular 
and plentiful feeding. I will arrange my observations 
under the following heads: 
“1. On the 10th of May the first Italian workers 
emerged; and on the 17th they made their first appear- 
ance outside of the hive. On the next day, and then 
An extract from Huber’s preface will bo interesting In this connection. Aftor 
speaking of his blindness, and praising the extraordinary taste for Natural History, 
of his assistant, Burncns, “who was bom with the talents of an observer,” he says: 
“Every one of the facts I now publish, wo have seen, over and over again, during 
the period of eight years, which wc have employed in making our observations on 
hoes. It is Impossible to form a just idea of the patience and skill with which 
Burncns has carried out the experiments which I am about to describe ; he has 
often watched some of tho working bees of our hives, which wo had reason to 
think fertile, for tho space of twenty-four hours, without distraction * * * * and ho 
counted fatigue and pain as nothing, compared with the great desire ho felt to 
know the results. If, then, there be any merit in our discoveries, I must share tho 
honor with him; and 1 have great satisfaction in rendering him this act of public 
Justice.” 
And yet tho man who was too noble to appropriate the merits of his servant, has, 
by many, been considered base enough to attempt to imposo upon the world, as 
well established facts, things scarcely more probablo than tho fictions of “Sinbad 
the Sailor." 
