154 



ANIMAL LIFE 



swarm finally finds a new hollow tree, or in the case of the 

 hive-bee (Fig. 91) the swarm is put into a new hive, where 

 the bees build cells, gather food, produce young, and thus 



FIG. 91. Hiving a swarm of honey-bees. Photograph by S. J. HUNTER. 



found a new community. This swarming is simply an emi- 

 gration, which results in the wider distribution and in the 

 increase of the number of the species. It is a peculiar but 

 effective mode of distributing and perpetuating the species. 

 There are many other interesting and suggestive things 

 which might be told of the life in a bee community : how 

 the community protects itself from the dangers of starva- 

 tion when food is scarce or winter comes on by killing the 

 useless drones and the immature bees in egg and larval 

 stage ; how the instinct of home-finding has been so highly 

 developed that the worker bees go miles away for honey 

 and nectar, flying with unerring accuracy back to the hive ; 

 of the extraordinarily nice structural modifications which 

 adapt the bee so perfectly for its complex and varied busi- 

 nesses ; and of the tireless persistence of the workers until 



