CH. IV.] THE HIVE BEE. 75 



out causing a separation. After rolling about in 

 the dust, the victor, watching- the time when its 

 enemy uncovers his body, by elongating it, in the 

 attempt to sting, thrusts its weapon between the 

 scales, and the next instant its antagonist stretches 

 out its quivering wings, and expires. A bee cannot 

 be killed so suddenly, except by crushing, as by the 

 sting of another bee. Sometimes the stronger in- 

 sect produces the death of the vanquished by 

 squeezing its chest. After this feat has been done, 

 the victorious bee constantly remains, says Reamur, 

 near his victim, standing on his four front legs, and 

 rubbing the two posterior ones together. Some- 

 times the enemy is killed in the hive ; then the vic- 

 tor always carries the corpse out of the city, and 

 leaves it. These combats are strictly duels, not 

 more than two being concerned in them ; and this 

 is even the case when armies of bees meet in 

 combat. 



It must also be confessed, that however inclined, 

 naturally, to industrious habits, the bee will turn 

 thief, if it cannot obtain food by its own labours. 

 In hives which are ill managed, and not properly 

 supplied with food, the bees, instead of continuing 

 a well-constituted civil society, become a formidably 

 organized band of robbers, which levy contributions 

 upon the neighbouring hives. At first, a few enter 

 the hive by stealth ; their numbers are then gradu- 

 ally augmented, and at length grown more bold, an 

 attack en masse is made, and a bloody battle ensues. 

 When the carnage is ended, and one of the queens 

 killed, the bees unite under the same sovereign, and 

 the vacated hive is now ransacked, and its treasures 

 conveyed to the new city. 



A still more extraordinary instance of aggression 

 sometimes occurs, when this proverbially indus- 

 trious insect does not disdain to rob on the highway. 



Occasionally, one solitary humble bee, which, in 

 its instincts, compared with the hive bee, is a mere 



