i62 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



the union never takes place in the hive, nor has it been 

 possible to bring about the impregnation of a captive queen/ 

 While she lives in their midst the lovers about her know^ not 

 v\^hat she is. They seek her in space, in the remote depths of 

 the horizon, never suspecting that they have but this moment 

 quitted her, have shared the same comb with her, have 

 brushed against her, perhaps, in the eagerness of their depar- 

 ture. One might almost believe that those wonderful eyes 

 of theirs, which cover their head as though with a ghttering 

 helmet, do not recognise or desire her save when she soars 

 in the blue. Each day, from noon till three, when the sun 

 shines resplendent, this plumed horde sallies forth in search 

 of the bride, who is indeed more royal, more difficult of 

 conquest, than the most inaccessible princess of fairy legend ; 

 for twenty or thirty tribes will hasten from all the neighbouring 

 cities, her court thus consisting of more than ten thousand 

 suitors ; and from these ten thousand one alone will be chosen, 

 for the unique kiss of an instant that shall wed him to death 

 no less than to happiness ; while the others will fly helplessly 

 round the intertwined pair, and soon will perish without ever 

 again beholding this prodigious and fatal apparition. 



85 



I am not exaggerating this wild and amazing prodigality 

 of Nature. The best-conducted hives will, as a rule, contain 



' Professor M'Lain has recently succeeded in causing a few queens to be artificially 

 impregnated ; but this has been the result of a veritable surgical operation of the most 

 delicate and complicated nature. Moreover, the fertility of these queens was ephemeral 

 and restricted. 



