354 APPENDIX. 



evening allowed her majesty quietly to pass into the hive through 

 an opening on top, taking the precaution to cover up the hive. 



On making an inspection next morning vi'e vi'ere surprised to find 

 a very dark Italian queen, as we thought. A few hours later we 

 witnessed an interesting scene, no less than a single combat between 

 the real Italian queen and the queen of the hive ; for although we 

 had judged the hive to be^queenless there was one in the hive all 

 the time, but she was a virgin. At the moment of our observation 

 the two queens were engaged in mortal conflict, and we were able 

 to summon our worthy secretary and a few apiarian friends to 

 witness the battle. After some few minutes (each being curled 

 round against the other) the English or rather the Scotch queen 

 dropped dead to the bottom of the hive and was seen no more. 

 It would have been interesting to have gained possession of the dead 

 queen for examination under the microscope, but the construction of 

 the hive and the position it was in did not allow of searching for her. 

 The Italian mother, who was for some time after greatly excited and 

 evidently much discomposed, reigned supreme, the monarch of the 

 hive ; and being already fertilised, the worker bees paid her due 

 attention, but began worrjang and tormenting the drones, because 

 they were now not wanted. 



These assaults of the little active working bees on the hurley 

 drones very much interested the spectators. The queen proceeded 

 with her duties of egg-laying, and the bees having exit through the 

 hording, the usual work of the hives was carried on fully exposed to 

 view. Not the least gratifying feature was the sight of these little 

 labourers travelling in and out under the glazed covered way. 



More active manipulation, such as driving bees from one hive to 

 another, gaining possession of the queen, and exhibiting her in the 

 hand, was carried on in another portion of the shed, and became a 

 source of wonderment to spectators. 



Many of the local newspapers had paragraphs descriptive of this 

 new exhibition in connection with a Scotch argricultural show. 



