LITTLE LANCE-BEARERS 321 
she creeps back and forth over and around the 
bodies of the sleepers, making sure that all is 
well, until the tints of dawn begin to streak the 
east, when she sets up a queer little trumpeting 
sound with her wings, quickly awakening the 
colony. The same bumblebee serves as watchman 
night after night. Should anything happen to 
her a new guard is appointed. But don’t ask me 
who makes the appointments, nor who settles 
what bumblebees shall fill all the other positions 
either, for that matter. It may be that the tasks 
are set by lot, eeny, meeny , miny , mo style. But 
one thing seems to have been established: the 
large bumblebees attend to the building and 
mending of the nest and bringing in the provi¬ 
sions ; the smaller ones do the inside work,—such 
as building up the cradles, nursing and feeding 
the young, and generally keeping things neat and 
tidy. 
“ One careful observer watched the nurse bees 
mixing up rations for the babies. He found them 
dipping first into the honey stores, then into the 
pollen, and mixing up a special little food of the 
two in another jar. Then, preceded by maids 
who carefully made an opening into each cradle, 
the nurses took the filled c bottles,’ which they 
doubtless carried concealed about their persons, 
and gently lifting the helpless little grubs, pro¬ 
ceeded to feed them with the brownish fluid which 
