Social Life of Animals 



75 



they exhibit more sagacity than can be explained by heredi- 

 tary habit, for they often adapt their actions to novel condi- 

 tions in a manner which must be described as intelligent. 

 Especially when we remember that the beaver belongs to a 

 somewhat stupid rodent race, are we inclined to believe that 

 it is the cleverest of its kind because the most socialised. 



5. Bees. — Many centuries have passed since men first 

 listened to the humming of the honey-bees, and found in the 

 hive a symbol of the strength of unity. From Aristotle's 

 time till now naturalists have 

 been studying the life of bees, 

 without exhausting either its 

 facts or its suggestions. The 

 society is very large and 

 complex, yet very stable and 

 successful. Its customs seem 

 now like those of children at 

 play, and now like the real- 

 ised dreams of social refor- 

 mers. The whole life gives 

 one the impression of an old- 

 established business in which 

 all contingencies have been 

 so often experienced that 

 they have ceased to cause 

 hesitation or friction. There 

 is indeed much mortality, 

 some apparent cruelty, and 

 the constantly recurring ad- 

 venture of migration ; but though hive may war against 

 hive, inter-civic competition has virtually ceased, and the 

 life proceeds smoothly with the harmony and effectiveness 

 of a perfected organisation. 



The mother-bee, whom we call a " queen " — though she 

 is without the wits and energy of a ruler — is to this extent 

 head of the community, that, by her prolific egg-laying, she 

 increases or restores the population. Very sluggish in 

 their ordinary life are the numerous males or "drones," 

 one of whom, fleet and vigorous beyond his fellows, will pair 



Fig. 16. — Honey-bee (^Apis mellifica). 

 A, queen ; B, drone ; C, worker. 

 (From Chambers's Encyclop.) 



