INTELLECT AND INSTINCT IN BEES. 237 



unhatched princesses in the hive, no attempt will be 

 made to follow the course adopted in the absence 

 of such royal progeny. In the latier case — i.e. when 

 there is no royal brood — there must be a distinct 

 conception, first of their bereavement ; secondly, of 

 the hopelessness of a sovereign appearing in the 

 ordinary way. Then a judgment is formed of the 

 proceedings necessary for making a queen, and 

 action immediately follows. Not only so, but, as 

 if to secure themselves against the repetition of 

 their calamity, they prepare not one queen only, but 

 several, so that, if the first which comes to maturity 

 be lost, there may be others in reserve. A further 

 act of definite judgment appears in this; for, if one 

 only were produced and lost, they would be power- 

 less to repeat the process, as all the rest of the 

 worker brood would, in the mean time, have ad- 

 vanced far beyond the stage at which its transfor- 

 mation would be possible. The bees, then, with 

 admirable prevision, forbear to risk all the future 

 of their community on one hope of a queen. 



Once more, we may notice the remarkable fact that, 

 if a queen be removed or lost late in the summer, at 

 the time when the destruction of the drones is draw- 

 ing to a close, the males of that particular hive will be 

 spared as long 'as there is any hope that a royal 

 spouse may be needed. In this instance, too, we 

 have what seems a distinct judgment of the necessity 

 that there should be drones spared for the renewal 

 of the progeny of the stock, and their consequent 

 immunity from the death or banishment they would 

 have undergone in a community possessing a fertile 

 sovereign. 



