60 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



of the wax in the combs melting. At such a time the 

 bees are very much, excited and dangerous to approach. 

 They have been kuovs^n to crowd together on the top of 

 the hive in a thick cluster to ward off the sun, exposing 

 themselves to its rays to protect their home. The air is 

 kept pure and cool within by an admirable system of 

 ventilation. Bees are regularly stationed off in the 

 corridors of the hive and at the entrance whose business 

 it is to fan their wings and thus keep up a current of 

 air. The motion of the wings is so rapid that it can 

 scarcely be detected with the naked eye, and the current 

 produced so strong that it will extinguish a lighted 

 match at the opening. They have been observed keep- 

 ing up this motion continuously for twenty or twenty- 

 five minutes — they are then relieved by others. It is 

 said, and upon good authority, that when bees are trans- 

 ferred from a cold to a warm climate, where food is to 

 be obtained throughout the year, in a few years they 

 cease to lay up honey and become idle and shiftless 

 creatures. They live from hand to mouth and take no 

 thought for the morrow, for they have found that the 

 morrow will take care of itself. 



There is one thing in which the otherwise unerring in- 

 stinct of bees seems to be somewhat at fault, and that is 

 in the management of the drones. A few drones are all 

 that are required in a hive, and yet they number some- 

 time as high as a thousand. After the young bees are 

 hatched and the numbers for the future welfare of the 

 colony are thus secured, these drones are ruthlessly kill- 

 ed off, as upon principles of thrift and economy they 

 should be, since they are great consumers and produce 

 nothing. But upon the same principles of thrift, the 

 great majority should never have been permitted to ex- 

 ist at all. They could easily be destroyed in the larval 

 state and the expense of rearing them would thus be 



avoided. Romanes touches upon this deficiency of in- 



le 



