380 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY CHAP. 



though in the case of the foragers, at any rate, this life is a 

 merry one, lived largely in the sunshine, flitting from flower 

 to flower. The queen certainly is fully developed, but her 

 life, except for the great events of her marriage flight and her 

 departure, perhaps in two successive years, with a swarm to a 

 new home, is confined within the dim-lit hive, and is almost 

 entirely limited .to reproductive activities. The drones alone 

 seem to stand aside, and to fail in obedience to the law of the 

 spirit of the hive, which enacts that each shall work for the 

 good of the whole. Truly they essay to perform their special 

 function on that wonderful flight which they make with 

 the queen, but failing that, they are nothing but a drag and 

 a burden on the community, and hence it may seem merely 

 instinctive stern justice that is meted out to them at the 

 end of the summer. 



With all this power of working together and this devotion 

 to the common good, the individual bees seem, nevertheless, 

 to care little for each other in the way in which we under- 

 stand the term. A sick bee is ignored or callously pushed 

 aside by any passing neighbour, and they seem to have no 

 idea of helping one another in difficulties, though their devo- 

 tion to the queen is entire. Her they defend with their 

 own bodies, and feed with the last drop of honey in the 

 hive, so long as on her the whole future of the community 

 depends. The loss of their queen greatly disturbs them, 

 and they will not at once accept a new queen if one is 

 introduced to them. In fact, they will often attack and kill 

 her. Bee-keepers, therefore, when it is necessary, intro- 

 duce a new queen protected by a little wire cage so that the 

 bees gradually get used to her presence. In time they will 

 begin to feed her, and then it is safe to remove the cage, 

 and she will be accepted by them as queen. 

 Powers of That bees can communicate with each other 

 Comnmni- seems indubitable. Their antennae, which they 

 cation, constantly cross with the antennae of any fellow- 

 bee they meet, are covered with short sensitive hairs, and 

 with thousands of minute structures, which are looked upon 

 as being probably organs of hearing and smell, though their 

 function has not yet been determined with certainty. Maeter- 

 linck and others have shown that if a bee is enticed to feed 

 on a special supply of honey some little distance from the hive, 



