THE BEE NATION. 271 



own bees, which promptly ravished it. Some humble bees 

 which, in spite of the disaster hovering over their nest, had 

 remained therein, continued to fly out and to bring food for 

 their wants back to the old place. The bees followed in 

 their tracks, turned back with them into their nest, and did 

 not leave them until they had obtained the surrender of 

 their harvest. They "licked them, stretched out their pro- 

 boscides to them, surrounded them, and would not let them 

 go until they had won from them the sweet juice which they 

 concealed within them. They did not try to kill the insects 

 to which they owed their meal, while the good-natured and 

 rather stupid humble bees, which became quite accustomed 

 to the payment of these contributions, gave up their honey 

 and flew out again. This new style of housekeeping was 

 carried on for more than three weeks, until at last the 

 humble bees scattered, and the beggar bees consequently 

 came no more. Some wasps, which paid a visit resembling 

 those of the bees, did not succeed. They could not make 

 friends with the original owners of the nest in the same way, 

 and did not possess the fine coaxing or sly manners of their 

 rivals. 



An exactly similar scene may be observed between robber 

 bees and the inhabitants of a weak hive, and strikingly 

 recalls the details given above. 



Robber bees can be raised artificially by feeding bees with 

 honey mixed with brandy. They learn to be sadly fond of 

 this drink, just like men, like them, soon become stupid and 

 intoxicated, and, like them, cease to work. If they then 

 become hungry, they fall, like men, from one vice to another, 

 and take to thieving. Instinct withholds them from this 

 fatal enjoyment just as little as it does from the enjoyment 

 of bad or sour honey, by which last proceeding bee-masters 

 often suffer great loss. According to the newspapers, no 

 less than 550 hives perished in Boone County, in America, 

 during April and May, 1872, in consequence of the bees 

 eating sour honey. 



All this, and many other similar facts, show that the bees 

 in their actions do not, as has usually been thought without 

 proof, obey a distinct irresistible impulse of nature, but that 

 with them, exactly as with men, work and pleasure are 

 distinct and various, according to the difference of circum- 

 stances and of wants. ' How shall we name," says A. Fee 



