238 THE HONEY-BEE. 



Again, in the late summer, when supplies of honey 

 from the fields beg-in to fail, the workers, even in a 

 flourishing hive, will not only worry to death, or drive 

 away to destruction, all the males which are adult, 

 but will pull out of the cells the immature drones, and 

 carry them from the hive. In this case we have two 

 independent judgments. First, that, having a fertile 

 queen, but no probability of further swarming, no 

 raison d'etre exists for the males among them ; and 

 secondly, that the unhatched males would, on emerg- 

 ing from the cells, be useless consumers of precious 

 stores, and consequently are better destroyed. 



Numerous other evidences of judgment might be 

 adduced, such, for instance, as building drone-comb, 

 i.e. cells of large size, when unusual space is required 

 for quick storing of food, the different expedients 

 for repairing, refixing, and giving direction to combs, 

 in view of various difficulties to be encountered. But 

 we have said, we believe, sufficient to make good the 

 special point in question. 



We might, perhaps, with advantage, have spoken 

 of the faculty of attention, i.e. the direction of the 

 mental powers to a particular end by the determinate 

 action of the will. At every moment we may see, in 

 a busy hive, evidences of this power. Indeed, in so 

 complex a community, where so many operations are 

 constantly going forward, where so many stages of 

 social development are being passed through, where 

 so many separate interests have to be regarded, and 

 where the harmonious co-operation of individuals is 

 of supreme importance to the general welfare, it is 

 impossible that this faculty of attention should be 

 wanting or unexercised. 



