fellow workers of the hive in the neatness of their work, the several patches adhering to the outside of the cells contribute much to the rough and clumsy appearance which the interior of the nest exhibits.
In fifteen days the bee arrives at its perfect state; its body has become hardened, and is covered with a greyish down, which, on being exposed to the light, assumes a diversity of colours. It gnaws through its prison-walls, assisted by its fellows; and in a quarter of an hour from the commencement of its exertions, it emerges from its cradle, leaves its nest, and takes its first flight into the fields in search of honey. Its deserted habitation has now the form of a truncated cone, and is made a receptacle for provisions. As her progeny gradually increases in numbers, the mother-bee relaxes in her labours; she leaves to them the lining of the walls and roof of the nest with a thin membrane of wax; and though she occasionally lends her aid in the construction of cells, it is only to give the finishing polish to what the workers have already "rough-hewn."
The inmates of an humble-bee nest are, as has been stated, of three classes: females, males, and workers. The old female, we have said, is alone in spring. In May, the eggs which she has laid, have been hatched, and produce workers only; the females and males of the community do not appear till later,—none sooner than June, and the greatest number in July. The males have the advantage of the hive-drone in point of usefulness to the community; for
