THE BEE NATION. 257 



coming back from her wedding flight, penetrates by a badly 

 placed or carelessly guarded mouth, iuto a strange hive, 

 where she meets with inevitable death by hunger, smothering, 

 or poison. The so-called robber bees, of which we shall 

 have to speak again later, also sometimes succeed in master- 

 ing the guard and intruding into the hive by craft, strength, 

 or fraud. But, as a rule, the latter are very much on the 

 alert against these "thieves and highwaymen, and very 

 exceptionally let strange bees pass, and then only when they 

 are laden with honey and pollen, and the guard are, there- 

 fore, convinced that they are not going to steal. In other 

 cases, and when they have been warned and excited by pre- 

 vious burglaries, they rise several feet to meet the robber 

 bees in the air, and try to kill them. They may then often 

 be seen falling to the ground wrestling with each other. 

 Only very young bees from strange hives, which have flown 

 out and cannot again find the way to their own houses, are 

 sometimes admitted, apparently from compassion, even 

 though they are generally unladen. Even members of the 

 hive during the foraging season are, as a rule, admitted only 

 when they are laden, whereas the scouts returning from their 

 expeditions are let in, as a matter of course, without carrying 

 anything. 



This foreign policy, as it is called, is not so strictly carried 

 out by all bees as the bee-fathers might desire. Here, as in 

 human policy, there is a good deal more connivance than is 

 quite to be wished for in the interest of the community. 

 But whether personal views, family and business connexions, 

 hopes of advancement, fear of great folk, favoritism, etc., 

 play a similar part to that they play among " reason "- 

 endowed creatures, I do not venture to decide, though I think 

 it very improbable. 



The guards are chiefly on the watch against actual enemies 

 of bees, or strange insects which try to penetrate into the 

 nest. This happens most often by night, when the quiet 

 prevalent in the hive favors approach, and the sweet scent 

 proceeding therefrom attracts the foe. The instant that any 

 strange insect comes into contact with the antennae of the 

 night-guard, the latter fly up, and instead of the short, 

 broken hum that is heard when all is at peace, emit a very 

 different sharp, hissing note, which is repeated by all the 

 guards, and at once rouses the inmates of the hive. A 



