324 DIVISION III. ARTICULATED ANIMALS.— CLASS IV. INSECTA. 
having discharged their burden, are departing for the country for a new 
store. Tere cautious sentinels scrutinize every fresh arrival; there purvey- 
ors, in a hurry to be back at work again, stop at the entrance of the hive, 
where other bees unload them of their burdens; elsewhere a working bee 
engages in a battle with some rash intruder; at another point the workers 
are occupied in drawing out the dead body of one of their companions ; at 
the same time the surveyors of the hive clear it of everything which inter- 
feres with their labors, or is prejudicial to health. The most admirable 
order presides over all these movements, and a most perfect division of labor 
is maintained. 
THEY ASSIST EACH OTHER. — “ When a bee meets,” says Réaumur, “any 
of its companions who want food, and who have not had time to go and get 
any, it stops, erects and stretches out its trunk, so that the opening by which 
the honey may be taken out is a little way beyond the mandibles. It pushes 
the honey towards this opening. The other bees, who know well enough 
that it is from there they must take it, introduce the end of their trunk, and 
suck it up. The bee, which has not been stopped on its road, often goes 
to the places where other bees ‘are working, that is, to those places where 
other bees are occupied, either in constructing new cells, or in polishing or 
bordering the cells already built ; it offers them honey, as if to prevent them 
from being under the necessity of leaving their work to go and get it them- 
selves.” 
THE QUEEN SUBDUES HER REBELLIOUS SUBJECTS BY HER ELOQUENCE. 
—In the process of swarming, the colony sets forth under a new queen, 
who often finds it difficult to establish her authority over the community. 
When the bees become violent in their mutiny, the young queen harangues 
them in a musical speech, which has the effect to stop the wild commotion, 
and compel the rebels reverently to bow their heads before her. The song 
resembles that of the grasshopper. Francis Huber, speaking of a queen 
which had just been hatched, and which was trying in vain to satisfy her 
jealous instincts, says, — 
“She sang twice. When we saw her producing this sound, she was 
motionless; her thorax rested against the honey-comb, her wings being 
crossed on her back, and she moved them about without uncrossing them, 
and without opening them. Whatever cause it was that made her choose 
this attitude, the bees seemed affected by it; all of them now lowered their 
heads, and remained motionless. Next day the hive presented the same 
appearance ; there remained still twenty-three royal cells, which were all 
assiduously guarded by a great number of bees. The moment the queen 
approached these, all the guards were in a state of agitation, surrounded 
her, bit her, hustled her in every way, and generally finished by driving her 
