VI 



THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT 



[82] 



WE will now consider the manner in 

 which the impregnation of the 

 queen-bee comes to pass. Here again na- 

 ture has taken extraordinary measures to 

 favour the union of males with females 

 of a different stock ; a strange law, whereto 

 nothing would seem to compel her ; a 

 caprice, or initial inadvertence, perhaps, 

 whose reparation calls for the most mar- 

 vellous forces her activity knows. 



If she had devoted half the genius she 

 lavishes on crossed fertilisation and other 

 arbitrary desires to making life more cer- 

 tain, to alleviating pain, to softening death 

 and warding off horrible accidents, the 



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