238 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
influx of new blood to the colony. This can only 
be effected out-of-doors, and as far as possible 
from the parent hive. The strongest impulse, 
therefore, of the virgin-queen, when she goes off 
on her mating-flight, is to get away quickly from 
her home surroundings. She flies straight off at 
tremendous speed, and thus has every chance of 
getting unperceived into new country, and so into 
the reconnoitring ground of strange drones. 
Another reason for her extended flight and its 
remarkable pace is that only the strongest and 
swiftest drone of all the pursuing multitude is 
likely to overtake her, and this again makes for 
the betterment of the race. Perhaps there is no 
parallel instance in nature where the selection of 
the fittest individuals to continue a species is so 
carefully provided for, and no doubt this accounts 
for the high place of the honey-bee in the scale of 
created things. But this scheme involves enormous 
risk to the young queen. A hundred dangers lurk 
on her path. She is a tempting morsel for every 
bird that throngs the air of the June morning. 
Her untried wings may fail her. Even if she gets 
back safely to the bee-garden, she may enter the 
wrong hive, to her instant destruction. But she 
must take her chance of all risks; and the only 
thing to do is to render her absence from home as 
brief as may be, and her fertilisation as sure, by 
making the wandering drone-population large 
enough to cover all probable ranges of flight. 
