510 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



niately connected with the organization and very ex- 

 istence of the workers, and as incapable of change, as 

 that which leads them to build cells or to store up ho- 

 ney. But this is far from being- the case. However 

 certain the doom of the drones this autumn, if the hive 

 be furnished with a duly-fertilized queen, their undis- 

 turbed existence over the winter is equally sure if the 

 hive have lost its sovereign, or hel' impregnation have 

 been so retarded as to make a succession of males in 

 the spring doubtful. In such a hive the workers do not 

 destroy a single drone, though the hottest pefsecution 

 rages in all the hives around them. 



Now, how are we to explain this difference of con- 

 duct ? Are we to suppose that the bees know and rea- 

 son upon this alteration in the circumstances of their 

 community — that they infer the possibility of their en- 

 tire extinction if tlie whole male stock tvere destroyed 

 when without a queen — and that thus influenced by a 

 wise policy they restrain the fury they would other-* 

 wise have exercised ? This would be at once to make 

 them not only gifted with reason, but endowed with a 

 power of looking before and after, and a command over 

 the strongest natural propensities, superior to what 

 could be expected in a similar case even from a soci- 

 ety of men ; and is obviously unwarrantable. The 

 only probable supposition is clearly, that a new instinct 

 is developed suited to the extraordinary situation in 

 which the community stands, leading them now to re- 

 gard with kindness the drones, for whom otherwise 

 they would have felt the most violent aversion. 



In this instance, indeed, it would perhaps be more 

 strictly correct to say (which, however, is equally won- 



