-226 THE BEE NATION. 



case. The wind threw down from the stand of a bte-master 

 a friend of the author's whose name will soon become 

 known a straw bee-hive, the inmates of which were sur- 

 prised in full work, and no small disorder in the interior 

 was the result. The owner repaired the hive, put the 

 loose comb back in its place, and replaced it in such a 

 manner that the wind could not again catch it, hoping that, 

 the accident would have no further results. But when he 

 examined the hive a few days later, he found that the lees 

 Jiad left their old home in the lurch, and had tried to 

 enter other hives, clearly because they could no longer 

 trust the weather, and feared that the terrible accident 

 might again befall them. 



It is almost impossible to introduce a new queen into a 

 chiefless hive with a factitious queen, because the bees are under 

 the delusion that they already have one. The egg-laying 

 worker will also readily smother the real queen that is given, 

 because it believes itself to be one. The never-erring 

 " instinct " does not therefore tell them of their fatal error, 

 any more than it tells the leaf-cutting solitary hunlble-bee 

 if it cuts its leaves too large or too small for the protection 

 and covering of its eggs, or if it makes a mistake in the 

 choice of the leaves. (Reimarus, loc. cit. 2nd ed. p. 181.) 

 Nor can the hatred shewn as described by the queen-bee 

 towards her royal relations, which drives her to murder 

 them, be well described as the result of an instinctive ten- 

 dency, evoked for. the benefit of the community ; since it is 

 not clear why it should not be as good in the bee as in 

 the ant State for several queens to live together, and since 

 such an arrangement would rather promote than prejudice 

 the welfare of the community. There are in fact some races, 

 such as the Egyptian bees, which always have several 

 queens. By the frequent driving out of old queens and the 

 formation of new swarms a real advantage for the general 

 spread of the race would be given. So that nothing can bear 

 the blame save the desire of the queen, inherited from genera- 

 tion to generation, for personal rule, wherewith is conjoined 

 the sad consciousness that the appearance of a rival in the 

 old hive means her own abdication and the compulsion to 

 seek a new home. In any case it ought not to be forgotten 

 in judging these circumstances, that young queens are, as a 

 rule, more fruitful than old ones, and that, therefore, by 



