executioners make no use of their stings; these they might be unable to withdraw from their victim’s body, in which case they, too, would die. But there is no need to run this risk, for the males, their brothers, whom they so cheerfully slay, are unarmed; they may be attacked without risk. The dreadful work, however, is soon over, and the survivors, the queen and her daughters, have the house to themselves to make the final preparations for the winter sleep, which is apparently undisturbed by qualms of conscience. There are certain structural differences distinguishing the three types in such a hive—the queen, the drone and the worker—which must now be referred to. The queen is larger than the worker; she has a larger and longer abdomen, a longer and much-curved sting, and her eyes have fewer facets. Only vestiges remain of the wax-secreting organs, and no trace is to be found of the wonderful pollen-baskets which perform so important a function in the worker; and finally, her instincts are of a very different kind. The “pollen-basket” of the worker is a strange contrivance. The pollen is mainly collected by the hairs which clothe the under surface of the body, from which it is scraped by special brushes of hairs which clothe the inner surface of the “metatarsus “—the big, flat joint to which are attached a series of small triangular joints, the last of which bears the claws. When the brushes are “clogged up,” the legs are crossed and the pollen is combed out by specially stiff hairs on the “tibia”—the joint immediately above the metatarsus—and the bolus thus formed is then transferred to the outer surface of the tibia, which is trough-shaped, forming the “corbiculum,” or pollen-basket. The next, or middle, pair of legs are then employed to ram the pollen well into the basket, for safe conveyance to the hive. On arrival at the combs, the bee pushes its hind-legs into a cell, or “pollen-tub,” and with a special spur dislodges the pellet of pollen and lets it fall into the tub. These are complex movements, performed without instruction and, we must suppose, without any intelligent conception of their purpose. The drone is larger than either queen or worker, and has enormous eyes, which meet one another over the top of the head; he has no wax-secreting organs, no pollen-basket, no sting. His antennæ are longer, his hum is deeper, his sole function is to fertilize a queen, and this done, he promptly dies. Failing in his first flight, he may make yet other ventures, but the chances are that he will die without attaining the only purpose for which he exists.