A ROMANCE OF ANATOMY 165 



mediately, and the hue-and-cry begins at once. 

 But one of the most curious facts in bee-life is the 

 variation in intelligence, and alertness of percep- 

 tion, between the different hives. A steady- going, 

 dull race may be a considerable time before it 

 perceives the absence of its queen. The com- 

 mon note of work goes on unchanged until the fact 

 dawns on it. And then the peculiar shrill out- 

 cry commences, overpowering all other sounds 

 until reason again asserts itself in the colony, and 

 the bees set about the work of raising another 

 queen. 



The voice of the drone is deeper and hoarser 

 than that of the worker-bee, by reason of his larger 

 body ; and his noisier buzzing is explained by his 

 greater length and breadth of wing. The queen 

 also has a deeper, more husky voice during flight ; 

 but she has, in addition, a peculiar cry of her own, 

 an old familiar sound to bee-keepers all the world 

 over. It is heard principally just before the 

 swarming of the hive. Certain old skeppists pro- 

 fess to be able to foretell the date on which a 

 swarm will issue by studying the cry of the queen. 

 On quiet nights, just before the swarming-season 

 commences, it may frequently be heard above the 

 general murmur of the hive by bending the ear 

 down to the entrance. It is a shrill piping sound, 

 repeated over and over again, and often answered 

 by other and fainter notes. How it is produced 

 is not certainly known, but probably it is caused 



