6 
84 NATURAL HISTORY. 
hey feem fenfible that, two young ones, ftuffed up in the fame cell, 
ahen they grow larger, will but embarrafs, and at laft deftray eack 
other: they therefore take care to’leave a cell to every egg; and rev 
move, or deflroy the reft. : : Sieg 
The fingle egg that is left remaining, is fixed to the bottom of the 
€ell, and touches it but in a fingle point. A day or two after it is de- 
pofited, the worm is excluded trom the fhell of the egg, having the 
appearatice of a maggot rolled up ina ring, and lying foftly on a bed 
of a whitith coloured jelly ; upon which alfo the little animal begins to 
feed, Inthe mean time, the inftant it appears, the working bees at 
gend it with the moft anxious and parental tendernefs; they furnifh 1t 
every hour with a fupply of this whitith fubftance, on which it feeds. 
and lies; and watch the celi with unremitting care. They are nurfes 
that have a greater affection for the offspring of others, than many pa — 
rents have for their own children, They are conftantin vifiting each: 
eell, and feeing that nothing is wanting ;. preparing the white mixtures 
which is nothing but a eompofition of honey and wax, in their ow? — 
bowels, with which they feed them. ‘Thus attended, and plentifully 
€ed, the worm, in lefs than fix days time, comes to its full growth, and 
mo longer accepts the food offered it. When the bees perceive that it 
has no further occafion for feeding, they perform the laft offices of ten 
dernefs, and fhut the little animal up in its cell; walling up the mouth 
of its apartment with wax: there they leave the worm to itfelf; having — 
decured it from every external injury. 
The worm is no fooner left inclofed, but, from a ftate of inaction, it, 
begins to labour, extending and fhortening its body; and by this means 
Uning the walls of its apartment with a filken tapeltry, which it {pins 
in the manner of caterpillars, before they undergo their laft transforr 
gation, When their cell is thus prepareg, the animal is foon afte? 
éransformed into’an aurelia; but differing from that of the commo# — 
gaterpillar, as it exhibits not only the legs, but the wings of the future 
bee, in its prefent ftate of inaétivity. Thus, in about twenty, or on? 
and twenty days after the egg was laid, the bee is completely formeds 
and fitted to undergo the fatigues of its ftate. When all its parts havé 
acquired their proper ftrength and confiftence, the young animal opens 
its prifon, by piercing with its teeth the waxer door that confines 1+ 
‘When juft freed from its cell, it is as yet moilt, and incommoded with 
the {poils of its former fituation; but the officious bees are foon feen t? 
flock round it, and to lick it clean on all fides with their trunks; whilé — 
- gnother band, with equal affiduity, are obferved to feed it with honey? 
ethers again begin immediately to cleanfe the cell that has been ju* 
left ; to carry the ordures out of the hive, and to fit the place for # 
gew inhabitant. The young bee foon repays their care, by its indui 
try; for as foon as ever its external parts become dry, it difcovers its 
natural appetites for labour, and induftrioufly begins the tafk, , wh! 
it purfues unremittingly through life. The toil of man is irkfome © 
him, and he earns his fubfiftence with pain; but this little animal feems 
happy in its purfuits, and finds delight in all its employments. 
When juft freed from the cell, and properly equipped by its fello¥ 
bees for duty, it at once iffues from the hive, and ipftru@ed only bY 
~Wature, goes in queft of flowers, choofes only thofe that yield it a fap, 
ply, rejects tach as are barren of honey, or have becn already drain 1 
