i64 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



the bee. It has a multiplicity of parts, and is 

 obviously designed to convey a great variety of 

 sounds. The wings also produce tones that run 

 up or down in the scale, according to their rate of 

 oscillation ; and from them comes the sibilant 

 note usually called buzzing. Listening to the hive- 

 music at any season of the year, it is impossible to 

 resist the thought that bees not only hold indi- 

 vidual communication by means of these infinitely 

 varied sounds, but that the general note given out 

 by the multitude unerringly expresses the state of 

 affairs within the hive for the time being. A 

 prosperous stock voices its busy contentment in a 

 way impossible to misunderstand. It is a deep, 

 blithe, resonant sound, like the steady running of 

 well-oiled machinery, each wheel adding its own 

 whirring melody to the general theme. Weak or 

 famishing colonies give out a wavering, intermittent 

 note, the very voice of complaint and fear for the 

 future. When a hive has lost its queen, a capable 

 bee-master should have no difficulty in divining 

 the trouble by listening at the hive-entrance. A 

 queenless stock is all clamour and the hubbub of 

 divided counsels. The ordinary rich reverbera- 

 tion of labour stops, and a sound of panic goes to 

 and fro in the hive unceasingly. If a hive be 

 quietly opened, and its queen removed with little 

 disturbance, it may be some time before the bees 

 discover their loss. Some colonies experimented 

 with in this way realise their deprivation ira- 



