16 COMMUNITY OF BEES IN A HIVE. 



flies filling the air, or coming in great numbers 

 into a house. Or again, amongst birds, we may 

 find thousands of starlings congregated together ; 

 or large colonies of rooks, many of them building 

 their nests in the same tree, and then in winter time 

 coming home to roost at night in countless numbers, 

 so that the very air is darkened. But, although they 

 thus congregate together, they do not form a com- 

 munity ; they do not work together for a common 

 purpose ; they do not feed and take care of each 

 other's young. Each insect looks out for the supply 

 of its own needs. Each pair of birds, — sometimes the 

 hen bird alone, — build their own nest and rear their 

 own young, and have no regard to or interest in others. 

 But, when we come to look at bees and some other 

 insects, we find a different state of things altogether. 

 We find that everything, even their very lives, depend 

 upon their living in a community or society, all 

 obeying, by instinct, common rules, each one doing 

 its own part in the common work. 



' Alike ye labour, and alike repose ; 

 Free as the air, yet in strict order join'd, 

 Unnumber'd bodies with a single mind.' 



Evans. 



We see the same, in great measure, in wasps, which 

 live together during summer and autumn, all helping 

 together in the work of the common home. We see 

 the same in ants, which are insects in many respects 

 as wonderful in their habits and instincts as bees. 



Here, to illustrate what I have said about insects 

 working together for a common purpose, I may relate 

 a story told by Sir John -Lubbock of some wonderful 



