88 THELORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



bee that emerges ; and many other small birds 

 have discovered the same never-failing source of a 

 meal. 



The fact that, with a healthy stock of bees, the 

 interior of a hive always preserves its clean con- 

 dition, is usually a great puzzle to the novice. In 

 the summer, when the bees are passing continually 

 in and out, this is not so vast a matter for wonder. 

 But in winter-time, when the colony is confined 

 to the hive often for weeks together, it is remark- 

 able that neither the combs nor floor of the hive 

 are ever soiled by excreta. This is a difficulty 

 that the sanitary department in the hive has 

 successfully coped with long ago. It must have 

 been one of the earliest problems that presented 

 itself when the honey-bee first evolved the com- 

 munal habit. The Ancients believed that all the 

 excreta of the hive were deposited by the bees in 

 certain privy-cells, and thence removed at intervals 

 by the scavenging authorities. There is nothing 

 in this notion, absurd as it is, outside the scope of 

 bee-ingenuity ; on the contrary, such a crude device 

 would be little likely to commend itself to the hive- 

 people, as it would be ridiculously inadequate to 

 the case. How great must be the problem of the 

 preservation of cleanliness in a hive can only be 

 understood when the whole conditions are con- 

 sidered together, and that from a human stand- 

 point. Putting the figures unwarrantably low, 

 what measure of success could the greatest genius 



