232 THE HONEY-BEE. 



the honey stored in other communities, if once pilfer- 

 ing has begun. And yet we can hardly ascribe sheer 

 selfishness as the motive for robbing. We see, in 

 fact, that the life of the worker is one long series of 

 labours on behalf of a progeny not its own, and for " a 

 community in which its own existence is of very 

 short duration. While, therefore, we allow that there 

 is shown a desire to avoid honest toil, if dishonest 

 courses will yield supplies more readily, still we must 

 admit that the good, not of the individual but of 

 the state, is the actually impelling principle of the 

 plunderer. The amount of infatuation shown in the 

 eagerness of bees for sweets is well described by Dr. 

 Langstroth : " No one can understand the extent of 

 it until he has seen a confectioner's shop assailed 

 myriads of hungry bees. I have seen thousands 

 by strained out from the syrup in which they had 

 perished, thousands more alighting even upon the 

 boiling sweets, the floor covered and the windows 

 darkened with bees, some crawling, others flying, and 

 others still so completely besmeared as to be able 

 neither to crawl nor fly — not one in ten able to carry 

 home its ill-gotten spoils, and yet the air filled with 

 new hosts of thoughtless comers." They appear, 

 indeed, unable to perceive the disasters of com- 

 panions, and rush heedlessly on to destruction, the 

 victims of which lie all around them. 



From what has been previously said, it will be seen 

 that we cannot with any show of reason assign to bees 

 such complex emotions as benevolence or remorse. 

 They are incapable, on the one hand, of appreciating 

 the combination of circumstances involved in the dis- 

 tress or need of a friend, and the means of aid suitable 



