THE BEE NATION. 259 



us, for example, mice are gnawed to the bones, so that only 

 their neatly prepared skeletons are found in the hive. The 

 gnawed-off flesh, however, is not, as some have thought, 

 eaten by the bees, but is carried out of the hive. 



The guards have the further official duty of forwarding 

 into the hive all news from without, and, according to de 

 Fravicre, they have a number of different notes in their 

 voices, arising from the stigmata of the thorax and abdomen. 

 As soon as a bee arrives with important news it is at once 

 surrounded, emits two or three shrill notes, and taps a com- 

 rade with its long, flexible, and very sensitive feelers, or 

 antennae, which possess no less than twelve or thirteen 

 joints. The friend passes on the news in similar fashion, 

 and the intelligence soon traverses the whole hive. If it be 

 of an agreeable kind if, for instance, it concerns the dis- 

 covery of a store of sugar, or of honey, or of a flowering 

 meadow all remains orderly. But, on the other hand, 

 great excitement arises if the news presages some threaten- 

 ing danger, or if strange animals are menacing invasion 

 of the hive. It seems that such intelligence is conveyed 

 first to the queen, as to the most important person in the 

 State. 



This leads us naturally to the language, or the means of 

 communication among bees, which language, although in- 

 comprehensible to us, is clearly capable of ready and distinct 

 expressions. It is both a spoken and a gesture language, 

 and there can be no doubt that by its aid the bees under- 

 stand not only generalities, but also very distinct and very 

 different things. The discovery of a treasure of sugar or 

 other food, in a pleasant place by a single bee has at once 

 the result that in a short time a whole troop of hungry bees 

 arrive thereat, and this can manifestly be owing only to a 

 communication made by the first bee to its companions. 

 According to Landois (loc. at., p. 153), if a saucer of honey 

 is placed before a beehive, a few bees first come out, which 

 emit a cry of tilt, tut, tut. This note is rather shrill, and 

 resembles the cry of an attacked bee. Hereupon a large 

 number of bees come out of the hive to collect the offered 

 honey. When, in spring, the bee-master wants to make his 

 bees notice the water placed near the hive they need the 

 water when the care of the young begins, for preparing the 

 bee-bread so that they may not be compelled to bring it 



