INSECT LIFE 211 



crawling miserably about, and trying vainly to use 

 their wings. Other bees, in a coma or dying state, 

 were clinging to the sides of the hive or the alighting 

 board, or to grass stems, and were being milked of 

 their honey by the wasps. I saw two, even three, 

 wasps holding one bee, greedily competing for the con- 

 tents of the honey sac. To judge by the clean sweep 

 made of the conquered, many bees must have been cut 

 in two and carried off to a wasp nest near by. But I 

 did not actually see this done; the wasps attending 

 to bees outside the hive on the evening immediately 

 after the fight were, I think, only drawing the honey 

 from them. 



The victims, finding their hive stormed and the 

 guards overcome, had rushed to the cells and filled 

 themselves with honey, much as people whose house 

 is on fire will try to collect their valuables ere they fly. 

 This is the habit of alarmed bees. Tap their home 

 smartly with a stick or the flat of the hand, or send a 

 puff of smoke into the combs, and the bees, with a 

 loud, instant roar of excitement, will rush to the honey 

 stores and fill their sacs. Perhaps they expect to be 

 driven from their home, and so must fill themselves 

 with provender against hungry, homeless days to 

 come. 



I took off the roof of the hive. What a scene of 

 ruin and confusion ! The damage must have been 

 done in one day, for on the previous afternoon the 

 defenders had held their own, guarding the entrance, 



