DEVOTION TO QUEEN. 287? 
Their devotion to their queen is generally quoted 
as an admirable trait; yet it is of the most limited 
character. For instance, I was anxious to change 
one of my black queens for a Ligurian; and accord- 
ingly on October 26 Mr. Hunter was good enough to 
bring me a Ligurian queen. We removed the old 
queen, and we placed her with some.workers in a box 
containing some comb. I was obliged to leave home 
on the following day ; but when I returned on the 30th 
I found that all the bees had deserted the poor queen, 
who seemed weak, helpless, and miserable On the 31st 
the bees were coming to some honey at one of my 
windows, aud I placed this poor queen close to them. 
In alighting, several of them even touched her ; yet not 
one of her subjects took the slightest notice of her. The 
same queen, when afterwards placed in the hive, im- 
mediately attracted a number of bees. 
As regards the affection of bees for one another, it 
is no doubt true that when they have got any honey 
on them, they are always licked clean by the rest; 
but I am satisfied that this is for the sake of the 
honey rather than of the bee. On September 27, for 
instance, I tried with two bees: one had been drowned, 
the other was smeared with honey. The latter was 
soon licked clean ; of the former they took no notice 
whatever. I have, moreover, repeatedly placed dead 
bees by honey on which live ones were feeding, but the 
latter never took the slightest notice of the corpses. 
Dead bees are indeed usually carried out of the 
