THE LONG NIGHT IN THE HIVE 185 
cared for, it follows that the whole colony must 
wake with her, or at least as many as are necessary 
to keep her nourished and preserved from harm. 
The Queen a Slave to Tradition 
Those, however, who are familiar with the re- 
sourceful nature of the honey-bee might expect her 
to effect an ingenious compromise in these as in all 
other circumstances; and the facts seem to point 
to such a compromise. It is not easy to be sure of 
anything when watching the winter’ cluster in a 
hive, for the bees lie so close that inspection 
becomes at times almost futile. But one thing at 
least is certain. The brood-combs between which 
the cluster forms are not merely covered by bees. 
Into every cell in the comb some bee has crept, 
head first, and lies there quite motionless. This 
attitude is also common at other times of the year, 
and there is little doubt that the tired worker-bees 
do rest, and probably sleep, thus, whenever an 
empty cell is available. But now almost the entire 
range of brood-cells is, filled with resting bees, like 
sailors asleep in the bunks of a forecastle; and it is 
not unreasonable to suppose that each unit in the 
cluster alternately watches with the queen, or takes 
her ‘‘ watch below ”’ in the comb-cells. 
That there should be in this matter of wintering 
so sharp a divergence between the instincts of the 
queen-mother and her children is in no way sur- 
prising, when we recollect how entirely they differ 
on almost all other points. How this fundamental 
difference has come about in the course of ages of 
bee-life is too long a story for these pages. It has 
