56 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



stranger, she will at once be seized and lodged in the living 

 prison until such time as she manifest once more the desire 

 to attack her foe. It is right to add, however, that the 

 numerous experiments that have been made on this subject 

 have almost invariably resulted in the victory of the reigning 

 queen, ow^ing perhaps to the extra courage and ardour she 

 derives from the knov^ledge that she is at home, v^^ith her 

 subjects around her, or to the fact that the bees, hov^^ever 

 impartial while the fight is in progress, may possibly display 

 some favouritism in their manner of imprisoning the rivals ; 

 for their mother would seem scarcely to suffer from the 

 confinement, whereas the stranger almost always emerges in 

 an appreciably bruised and enfeebled condition. 



33 



There is one simple experiment which proves the readi- 

 ness with which the bees will recognise their queen, and 

 the depth of the attachment they bear her. Remove 

 her from the hive and there will soon be manifest all the 

 phenomena of anguish and distress that I described in a 

 preceding chapter. Replace her a few hours later, and her 

 daughters will all hasten towards her, offering honey. One 

 section will form a lane for her to pass through ; others, 

 with head bent low and abdomen high up in the air, will 

 describe before her great semicircles, throbbing with sound ; 

 hymning, doubtless, the chant of welcome their rites dictate for 

 moments of supreme happiness or solemn respect. 



But let it not be imagined that a foreign queen may 

 with impunity be substituted for the legitimate mother. The 



