196 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



honey, or other necessaries, that they cannot maintain their 

 life. Thus it is that the bee, though domiciled with us 

 rather than domesticated, has become united in its fortunes 

 with civilization. In this position they have shown a 

 remarkable adaptation to extremely varied conditions. They 

 can withstand any climate which permits the development of 

 the vegetation to which they need have access, provided the 

 growing season continues long enough to accumulate their 

 store. In the tropical lands they harvest so little honey that 

 they are not profitable to man, and in the high north they 

 need all their summer's accumulation to maintain them 

 through the long winter. Thus, though they may range 

 almost as far as man through the gamut of climates, they are 

 profitable to their masters only in the middle latitudes. 

 They commonly do not do well close to the sea, and cannot 

 be kept on inconsiderable islands for the reason that they 

 are, in their wanderings, likely to be lost in the waters. 



The bee, like the other social insects, evinces a wide range 

 of instincts which are intimately related to the economy of the 

 hive ; but these motives appear to be of an unchangeable char- 

 acter. They show no tendency to undergo the modifications 

 which we observe to take place in our birds and mammals 

 when they are brought under the influence of man. The 

 only case in which they show any distinct effect from their 

 contact with man is found in their evident recognition of 

 those who care for them. They soon learn that their master 

 is not to be feared, and, therefore, need not be resisted ; but, 

 beyond this dumb acceptance of a situation, they exhibit no 

 trace of sympathetic recognition of our kind. It is clear that 

 their mental endowments, though considerable, are very much 

 more remote from our own than are those of the vertebrated 



