252 AUSTRALASIAN 



CHAPTER XV. 



ROBBER BEES. 



Although bees have so many commendable qualities, as we 

 all know, still their most ardent admirers cannot deny that 

 they possess one which does not redound much to their credit, 

 according to our ideas of morality, namely, a propensity to rob 

 their neighbours in order to increase their own store. They 

 have this faculty very strongly developed, although it must 

 certainly be admitted, by way of qualification, that they very 

 seldom steal while honey is to be easily obtained in a legitimate 

 way. When they once enter upon this bad course, however, 

 they are almost quite incorrigible ; and if we adopt the theory 

 of the " survival of the fittest," we should expect to find the 

 honey-bees of to-day much superior to their ancestors, since 

 they never display the slightest compunction about robbing, 

 starving, and killing their weaker sisters of other colonies. It 

 may, however, be objected to this conclusion, that the worker 

 bees do not propagate their own race, and the oharge of robbery 

 «an be brought home to them only, and not to the queens or 

 drones. 



CAUSES OF ROBBING. 



Immediately after the close of the regular honey season, as 

 soon as their ordinary sources of supply begin to fail, the bees 

 not only become more jealous of any interference with their 

 own stores, but they are at once on the alert to pick up honey 

 or any kind of saccharine matter wherever it is to be found. 

 At such times they will visit grocery stores, breweries, jam 

 factories, or in fact any place where saccharine matter can be 

 obtained. On one occasion, when transferring some bees for 

 Captain Moore, of s.s. Vivid, Thames, I noticed that the honey 

 cells were of a very peculiar colour. I examined the contents, 

 and on tasting found it to be raspberry syrup, which, no doubt, 



