256 THE BEE NATION. 



hnunt such flowers, never utilise the holes made by humble 

 and honey-bees, but try to get into the tube of the corolla 

 from within a fact which shows that these insects lack the 

 sharpness of the honey-bee. 



The collection of nectar is performed with great speed 

 and cleverness, for we see the busy creatures fly swiftly from 

 flower to flower. Arrived at home, to the interior of the 

 hive, the flight or foraging bee deposits her outer and inner 

 loads as quickly as possible, so as to return to the task of 

 collecting, when, as before said, the provisions thus brought 

 are properly divided and further worked up by the home- 

 bees. If the foraging bee meets a hungry comrade on her 

 way home, the hungry bee is sometimes seen, as with the 

 ants, to communicate its want to its friend by touching its 

 head with its antennae, whereupon the latter opens its mouth 

 and by regurgitating or disgorging the contents of the crop 

 gives it food. Also when anything has happened at the 

 hive so that the gathered provision of honey cannot be got at, 

 or when such rich booty has been found that the superfluity 

 cannot be taken in, similar scenes of mutual division may 

 be observed, just as though, in order to provide against all 

 the accidents of the future, the food at their disposal was 

 equally divided among all. 



In some wonderful way, in spite of the great number 

 of workers, there is never the least press or the least dis- 

 order in going into or out of the hive. This may be 

 explained either by each troop having special leaders which 

 keep order, or by the bees which guard the entrance of the 

 hive and have to warn off any unauthorised intruder, pre- 

 serving order among the inflying and outflying bands. The 

 bees maintain an efficient guard day and night during 

 the warm season of the year at the gate of their dwelling, 

 and it has to discharge many weighty functions. No one 

 can penetrate into the hive without being first carefully 

 touched and examined by this guard. As a rule, only 

 inhabitants of the hive are let in, and all stranger bees, 

 which are easily distinguished by the smell, are sent back. 

 If a strange queen appears, the guard seize her on the spot. 

 They grasp her feet and wings with their mandibles, and 

 shut her up in so narrow a circle that she is unable to move 

 and there can be no more talk about going into the hive. 

 It only seldom happens that a queen, who has lost her way 



