204 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



intruder. One or two writers after Huber described 

 quite a complicated plan of fortifications made by 

 the bees against the moth, and commended this 

 ingenuity to the Vaubans of the age ! Huber surely 

 was misled by some wrong observations by his assist- 

 ants. Nothing in the wonderful life of the honey- 

 bee promises sudden originality like this. Put the 

 bees in difficulties they have not almost daily to 

 overcome, they are helpless. 



What is it determines the role of the working bee 

 whether it shall be gatherer of pollen, gatherer of 

 honey, garnisher of the hive, constable at the entrance, 

 air-fanner ? It is when we ask ourselves a question 

 like this that we must feel we are yet scarcely on 

 the threshold of knowledge as to the life of the 

 honey-bee. There is nothing to show that guards 

 are stationed at the entrance; that fanners are told 

 off to agitate the air within the hive. This would 

 imply a superior officer, a monitor, or ruler, and there 

 is no semblance of such authority in the hive. There 

 is what we call a bee-queen. But she attends to no 

 such matters : she issues no orders. Really, she is 

 not a queen despotic or constitutional. She is the 

 great mother bee. 



So far as we can peer into the life of the hive, 

 we find not the least sign of orders given; nor have 

 we evidence that one bee is born a collector of honey 

 or pollen, another a guard, a third an air-fanner. 

 The bee that guards to-day may gather to-morrow ; 



