CHAPTER IV. 
The Worker. — Traits of Character. — Its Body — Bread- 
baskets. — Honey-bottle. — Tongue. — Sting. — Collect- 
ing Food. — Nurse Bees. — Wax Workers. — Their La- 
bors. — Virgil’s Description. 
Workers constitute the principal population 
of the hive, there being often as many as twenty 
The Worker. 
thousand, or even more, in a single community. 
From the worker, the bee character has always 
been painted, — loyal, laborious, patient, and skill- 
ful. These traits are to some extent to be attrib- 
uted to its treatment during infancy, just as in a 
human being the early habits and training affect 
the whole after-life. 
