PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 205 



not properly fed, instead of collecting for themselves, will 

 now and then get a habit of pillaging from their more 

 industrious neighbours : these are called by Schirach 

 corsair bees, and by English writers, robbers. They make 

 their attack chiefly in the latter end of July, and during 

 the month of August. At first they act with caution, en- 

 deavouring to enter by stealth ; and then, emboldened 

 by success, come in a body. If one of the queens be 

 killed, the attacked bees unite with the assailants, take 

 up their abode with them, and assist in plundering their 

 late habitation ^. Schirach very gravely recommends it 

 to apiarists whose hives are attacked by these depreda- 

 tors, to give the bees some honey mixed with brandy or 

 wine, to increase and inflame their courage, that they 

 may more resolutely defend their property against their 

 piratical assailants''. It is however to be apprehended 

 that this method of making them pot-valiant might in- 

 duce them to attack their neighbours, as well as to defend 

 themselves. 



Sometimes combats take place in which three or four 

 bees attack a single individual, not with a design to kill, 

 but merely to rob : one seizes it by one leg, another by 

 another ; till perhaps there are two on each side, each 

 having hold of a leg, or they bite its head or thorax. But 

 as soon as the poor animal that is thus haled about and 

 malti'eated unfolds its tongue, one of the assailants goes 

 and sucks it with its own, and is followed by the rest, 

 who then let it go. These insects, however, in their or- 

 dinary labours are very kind and helpful to each other ; 

 I have often seen two, at the same moment, visit the same 



" Comp. Schirach, 49. Mills, (>3— Thorley, 163— '-51. 



