18 COMMUNITY OF BEES IN A HlVE. 



specimens of the little yellow ant, who directly at- 

 tacked her. I at once set myself to separate them, 

 but, owing either to the wound she had received from 

 her enemies, or to my rough, though well-meant 

 handling, or to both, she was evidently much 

 wounded, and lay helpless on the ground. After 

 some time another ant, but from her own nest, came 

 by. She examined the poor sufferer carefully ; then 

 picked her up gently, and carried her away into the 

 nest. It would have been difficult for any one who 

 witnessed this scene to have denied to this ant the 

 possession of humane feelings.' 



Again he says, 'At the present time I have two 

 ants perfectly crippled, so that they are quite unable 

 to move, but they have been tended and fed by their 

 companions, the one for five, and the other for four 

 months.' 



See, then, how they not only live together, but are 

 kind to one another, and help one another. 



Beavers, again, amongst animals, are striking ex- 

 amples, in some respects, of the same thing. Their 

 wonderful houses, built with rooms and passages, 

 and made strong and secure with wood, stones, 

 and mud, are made by them for the common pur- 

 poses of the whole colony. In it they live and. work 

 together. 



In the case of bees, this community or society is 

 absolutely necessary, A single bee cannot live by itself. 

 If you were to take a bee, or, we will sayj half-a-dozen 

 bees, and put them by themselves into the most com- 

 fortable little hive possible, they would very soon die. 

 They would have no spirit to work. They would not 



