88 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
bee that emerges; and many other small birds 
have discovered the same never-failing source of a 
meal. 
The fact that, with a healthy stock of bees, the 
interior of a hive always preserves its clean con- 
dition, is usually a great puzzle to the novice. In 
the summer, when the bees are passing continually 
in and out, this is not so vast a matter for wonder. 
But in winter-time, when the colony is confined 
to the hive often for weeks together, it is remark- 
able that neither the combs nor floor of the hive 
are ever soiled by excreta. This is a difficulty 
that the sanitary department in the hive has 
successfully coped with long ago. It must have 
been one of the earliest problems that presented 
itself when the honey-bee first evolved the com- 
munal habit. The Ancients believed that all the 
excreta of the hive were deposited by the bees in 
certain privy-cells, and thence removed at intervals 
by the scavenging authorities. There is nothing 
in this notion, absurd as it is, outside the scope of 
bee-ingenuity ; on the contrary, such a crude device 
would be little likely to commend itself to the hive- 
people, as it would be ridiculously inadequate to 
the case. How great must be the problem of the 
preservation of cleanliness in a hive can only be 
understood when the whole conditions are con- 
sidered together, and that from a human stand- 
point. Putting the figures unwarrantably low, 
what measure of success could the greatest genius 
