place in the mind of the honeybee and likewise in the mind of human beings. I wanted to become intimately acquainted with the larvae of the bees and for that purpose set a brood frame before a lens of short focus, and viewed it from a distance of four or five feet by using a camera box arrangement. This suggested the insertion of a camera plate and the making of a record of what was going on. I had supposed that the larvae lay dormant and crescent-shaped at the bottom of the cell, but I soon discovered, as soon indeed as the frame was brought before the lens, that that impression was incorrect and had been caused by a lack of observation. Under great magnification the larvae are seen to lie in a milky field over which they feed in much the same way as a horse or a cow feeds in a grassy field. We all have seen the cow or the horse crop the grass along a little path and then come back and mow another swath. So these little larvae were feeding from the field of royal jelly by a series of bites, or by what seemed like bites.

Of course the bee man knows that the tiny bees are fed with this jelly which, it is alleged, is secreted by glands in the worker bee's head, but I am willing to affirm that not one bee keeper in a thousand, though he may have handled bees all his life, has ever actually seen this marvelously interesting feeding process, and that it cannot be shown in an ordinary photograph. It would be a remarkable sight if it could be recorded by the moving picture method. I should like to see it reproduced on a screen as I have seen it in the comb. It would suggest to the spectator the actions of those prehistoric reptiles that we have seen restored by the geologist and pictured in his books, as those animals must have acted when they cropped the grass.

To one remarkable act of the worker bees I have never been able to find a theory assigned, although I have heard many conjectures as to its purpose. I refer to their peculiar hovering and quivering above the cells. The worker bee walks

almost say, she were listening, and after a series of hysterical jumps and jerks

The center of comb and walls of cells are heavily strengthened, thickened and supported in the attachment to the glass.

and the actions inexplicable. Under a powerful lens, this hysterical bee becomes the most remarkable sight within the hive. She appears to be agitated by mingled pleasure and pain, but whatever the cause, she persists in its faithful performance.

The queen bee deposits her eggs at the bottom of the comb cells, and glues each one fast at one end, and the curved egg then stands upright. When the larva hatches there is a peculiar wilting action in this upright egg, and it gradually bends downward and assumes a crescentic form. This reminds one of the slow bending toward the ground of the skunk cabbage fruit. The hatching changes begin at the upper end, and as the developing process continues, the entire egg gradually becomes flaccid downward, and when this limpness has reached the lower end, the larva is ready to begin that remarkable cropping of the

royal white jelly which is necessary to its

sustenance.

The bees bring in the pollen attached to their legs. These flat surfaces are bordered by two rows of stout hairs that remind one of the stakes on the farmer's hay wagon. He puts them on the side to keep the load in place; the bee has these hairs for a similar purpose. In all the many masses of pollen that I have examined I have never found two kinds on any one leg, although the bee may have come from a field or garden where there are many varieties of plants in bloom. The bee is a specialist. She devotes her entire attention to one thing and to one kind of pollen, though later on she may give undivided attention to another kind of pollen. These masses are so large and so heavy, that they suggest the possibility, and indeed the plausibility, of transmitting messages, as recommended by an English apiarist, by

writing them on tiny pellets of paper and attaching them to the bee, thus using the bee as a carrier, in a manner similar to that of the homing pigeon. The bee can carry a comparatively heavy load, but sometimes she stops to rest. I have it on the authority of a trustworthy brother naturalist in whom I have implicit confidence, that while he was fishing at a certain place in Nova Scotia, the bees were flying across the boat on their way homeward. Each carried a huge load of pollen, and many alighted on his boat apparently to rest. On their outward journey they similarly alighted and what was his amusement to note that each laid down a grain of sand, and after resting picked it up and carried it onward. I believe this observation is true, but the question arises, Why carry the sand and why need ballast? Is the bee keyed up to the point of carrying a certain weight, so that it works more easily with that weight than without it, or is the act the result of the force of habit? Again we come to a standstill against the wall of "I don't know."

I had seen and taken many photographs of honeycomb, but the plates were always made by reflected light. It therefore occurred to me that it might be interesting to see what would be the result if I should throw the light through the comb so as to reveal its internal structure. The result was surprising. When

the picture appears to be a bewildering collection of rosettes. I put the comb upon a swinging pivot and threw a strong light through it on a screen. Imagine my surprise when these rosettes and cubes changed in their projected forms on the screen, in much the same way as those signs that we sometimes see and that bear three different legends, according as we stand at either side or in front. I have been unable to picture this in a satisfactory way, but any one that has a projection lantern will be interested by holding a piece of clear honeycomb before it and turning it gradually so as to get a side view, a front view and all

the varying views between. Here is a suggestive field for study and in it I have gleaned some facts and a great deal of circumstantial evidence to prove that the honeybee does not build hexagonal cells. She, like all other members of the bee family, as, for example, the carpenter bee