I II.] THE QUEEA'. 15 



Either of these, it must be admitted, is a wiser method 



of settling the atiair than it would be to range the whole 



hive under two distinct banners, and so create a civil 



■\var, in which the members of the rival bands would kill 



and destroy each other for matters they individually had 



little or no concern about. The bees care not which 



queen it is, so long as they are certain of having one to 



rale over them and perpetuate the community ; indeed, 



they have been known in some cases to form rings round 



the respective combatants, and even to force them to 



the conflict if unaware of each other's presence. But 



Dr. Bevan tells us that there do exist queens which ivill 



?wt fight. The workers do not always decide: the matter 



in such case ; it is, indeed, nothing uncommon, says 



Vogel, for two fruitful queens to be allowed to live 



together ; and we have had instances of the same kind 



ourselves, without being able to give a reason other than 



that " the exceptions prove the rule." An Italian queen, 



it is said, is usually assisted in her third year by a 



younger mother bom in her own hive. 



These royal duels, though no longer regarded as the 

 invariable routine, have been abundantly testified to by 

 undoubted witnesses, and some of these have deduced 

 a singular law as governing the combatants. Neither 



and we learn from Von Gindly that he once succeeded in inducing a 

 queen to sting him, when the effect was like little more than the 

 prick of a needle. Kleine also, after persevering attempts, was once 

 stung by a queen, and so was Hofinann of Vienna — the queen in this 

 last case losing thereby the faculty of laying. 



