HIT-AND-MISS METHOD OF NATURE 



goes on, and that, apparently, is all that the gods of 

 evolution are solicitous about. 



The spirit of the hive has no further use for the 

 drones, and the parsimony of Nature, which asserts 

 itself, not for the individual but for the race, asserts 

 itself now. It is hard to see how natural selection, 

 which is looking after the fittest to survive, would 

 bring about this result. This cumbersome, round- 

 about method of fertilizing the queen should have 

 many disadvantages to the colony : the queen might 

 be lost in her flight, caught by some flycatcher, or 

 overwhelmed by a sudden storm; it is certain that 

 many drones are caught by kingbirds in the air. 

 Then this gang of drones has to be harbored and fed 

 by the colony, which is no small it«m. The flttest 

 and most economical process would be the fertiliza- 

 tion of the queen in the hive, thus doing away with 

 the superfluity of drones, which are certainly a tax 

 upon the swarm. It is an unfit method which has as 

 yet survived. The only possible advantage of it is 

 the advantage of cross-fertilization which may oc- 

 cur where there are other colonies of bees in the 

 neighborhood. Among our bumblebees this cross- 

 fertilization does not take place, as I have fre- 

 quently had occasion to observe. 



The hit-and-miss method of Nature only means 



that Nature experiments like an inventor, tries and 



tries again, takes a long time, but knows when she 



hits the mark. Mechanical forces only seek an equi- 



83 



