210 THE DUELS OF THE QUEENS DENIED BY DUNBAR. 



be stung to death ; and, supposing that the sting were so 

 inserted, it could not be done in any other manner, than in 

 a straight line, and how then could it be thrust into the 

 last rings of the body of the nymph ? 



Huber has laid it down as an invariable principle that the 

 bees kill the queen by means of their sting ; yet we find that 

 in the case of a stranger queen attempting to enter a hive, 

 they have another and more curious way of despatching her 

 majesty, which must be excessively tedious and annoying to 

 the regicides. The exhibition of the spectacle must have been 

 highly amusing to Huber, for he says, " that on the strange 

 queen attempting to force her entrance into the hive, the 

 guards (!!!) hemmed her in so straitly within a clustered 

 circle, turning their heads on all sides towards her, that it 

 was actually impossible for her to penetrate into the interior. 

 If they retain her a prisoner too long, she dies either from want 

 of food, or air, but never from the sting" Such are the pre- 

 cise words of Huber, and yet, in other parts of his works, he 

 establishes it as an undisputed point, according to his own 

 opinion, that the queens kill each other by their stings, and 

 in regular pitched duels. 



We, however, perfectly coincide with the opinion of Mr. 

 Dunbar, that no duel nor combat takes place amongst the 

 British queens, whatever may be the case amongst the 

 Genevese; the queen bee is by no means of a quarrelsome 

 nor yet of a fighting disposition; for were the queens, as 

 Huber represents them, to be so excessively prone to enter 

 into personal conflict with each other, the chances would be, 

 that both might fall in the contest, and then farewell to the 

 health and prosperity of the hive. Indeed, the fall of both 

 queens is a circumstance by no means uncommon; for it has 

 frequently occurred, in the junction of two second swarms, 

 when we have been unable to catch either of the queens, and 

 the death of one of them has consequently been left to be 

 executed by the bees themselves. This is easily accounted 



