BEES. 49 



leave the hive with another colony, and reHnquish the rig-hts 

 of sovereig'nty over the parent community in favour of one of 

 her helpless sisters. And so, at last, she departs, and a 

 second colony is speedily in course of establisliment. Possi- 

 bly a third, and yet a fourth, and a fifth, may follow ; the 

 number of swarms being* determined, no doubt, in ordinary 

 circumstances, by the number of the bees, and the heat of 

 the hive. But when the last swarm has departed, and the 

 number of the inhabitants so lessened that the guards of the 

 royal cells can no longer preserve their eflSciency, the re- 

 maining- young- queens emerg-e as they please, two or three at 

 a time, and civil war, alas! does at last take place. But 

 what an admirable mode of making- civil war it is. It is the 

 monarchs who fig'ht, and who are but few in number, and 

 must, therefore, soon bring- the contest to an end; it is the 

 bee-people that look on, quite content to pay allegiance to 

 the conqueror. Of course no bee-subject can thus be in 

 danger, by espousing the wrong side, of losing his property, 

 or his rank, or have his temper exasperated by defeat and 

 humiliation ; the contest affects none of these things. Let 

 us, too, watch the contest. Two young aspirants for the 

 throne are meeting ; they rush at each other ; each seizes 

 with her teeth the antennae of her rival ; they cling in mortal 

 combat so close together that head, belly, and breast are 

 mutually opposed. But nature has made them aware of 

 their value, or possible value, supposing there were no other 

 incipient sovereigns in the hive ; and of the danger of instant 

 death to both, should they in that position launch at each 

 other the fatal dart. So they separate by a tacit mutual 

 consent, and would apparently leave the combat to be de- 

 termined at some other time. But that will not do for the 

 bees. They can stand no shilly-shallying in the matter. 

 They must and will know who is to be their ruler. Is 

 government to stand still because the would-be governors 

 are cowards ? Certainly not. So the rivals are again driven 

 together into the area, no matter how often the queens seek 

 to evade the mortal issue, until at last the stronger one 

 seizes the other by the wing, curls her extremities under the 

 body, and infiicts the death-pang. 



The constitution of the queenrbee appears to be mucli 

 stronger than that of the ordinary bees. When a drone bee 



£ 



