attention to her wishes from every member of the community. She is their common mother, and is never opposed by them, and might destroy all the embryo-queens without any opposition. And this, in fact, does sometimes take place; for if the weather at this period set in and continue intemperate and stormy, no swarming takes place, for the old Queen destroys the whole of the royal brood. But it is otherwise in ordinary circumstances; and while she is left at perfect liberty to act as she pleases with regard to the unhatched queens, we are led to believe that she is induced to emigrate, not on account of the presence of her embryo rivals, but in obedience to the wise provision of nature for the increase of the species. Whatever may be the real cause, the proceedings of the Queen and the workers at the approach of summer evidently show that matters are ripening for some great internal movement. About the beginning or middle of May, the bees, as if aware of the necessity, begin to form large cells, in which the Queen immediately deposits the eggs of males, and continues to do so for about thirty days. At the same time, some royal cells are formed; for there appears to be a secret relation between the production of the eggs of males and the construction of royal cells; and about the twentieth day of her laying this species of eggs, the Queen, discovering the royal cells, deposits an egg in one of them, and, at intervals of a day between each, in all the other cells of this description. The bees know to close them at the moment when the larvæ are ready to be
