2H2 AUSTRALASIAN 
Cle WIE IE. | OY. 
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 charge of robbery 
can 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, 
