THE SWARM 47 



this hope ; finally, when their number was reduced by 

 one half, their queen was born, but her wings were im- 

 perfect, and she was unable to fly. Impotent as she was, 

 her bees did not treat her with the less respect. A week 

 more, and there remained hardly a dozen bees ; yet a few 

 days and the queen had vanished, leaving a few wretched, 

 inconsolable insects upon the combs." 



27 



There is another instance, and one that expresses the 

 very last word of filial love and devotion. It arises 

 from one of the extraordinary ordeals that our recent 

 and tyrannical intervention inflicts on these hapless, un- 

 flinching heroines. I, in common with all amateur bee- 

 keepers, have more than once had impregnated queens sent 

 me from Italy ; for the Italian species is more prolific, 

 stronger, more active and gentler than our own. It is the 

 custom to forward them in small, perforated boxes. In 

 these some food is placed, and the queen enclosed, together 

 with a certain number of workers, selected as far as possible 

 from among the oldest bees in the hive. (The age of the 

 bee can be readily told by its body, which gradually becomes 

 more polished, thinner, and almost bald ; and more parti- 

 cularly by the wings, which hard work uses and tears.) 

 It is their mission to feed the queen during the journey, 

 to tend her and guard her. I would frequently find, when 

 the box arrived, that nearly every one of the workers was 

 dead. On one occasion, indeed, they had all perished of 

 hunger ; but in this instance, as in all others, the queen 



