398 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
These apiarian battles are often fought in defence of the property of the 
hive. Bees that are ill managed, and not properly fed, instead of collect. 
ing for themselves, will now and then get a habit of pillaging from their 
more industrious neighbours: these are called by Schirach corsair bees, 
and by English writers robbers. They make their attack chiefly in the 
latter end of July, and during the month of August. At first they act 
with caution, endeayouring to enter by stealth ; and then, emboldened 
success, come in a body, If one of the queens be killed, the attacked bees 
unite with the assailants, take up their abode with them, and assist in 
plundering their late habitation. Schirach very gravely recommends it 
to apiarists whose hives are attacked by these depredators, to give the 
bees some honey mixed with brandy or wine, to increase and inflame their 
courage, that they may more resolutely defend their property against their 
piratical assailants? It is, however, to be apprehended that this method 
of making them pot-yaliant might induce them to attack their neighbours 
as well as to defend themselves. 
Sometimes combats take place in which three or four bees attack a single 
individual, not with a design to kill, but merely to rob: one seizes it-by one 
leg, another by another; till perhaps there are two on each side, each 
having hold of a leg ; or they bite its head or thorax. But as soon as the 
poor animal that is thus haled about and maltreated unfolds its tongue, 
one of the assailants goes and sucks it with its own, and is followed by the 
rest, who then let it go. These insects, however, in their ordinary labours 
are very kind and helpful to each other; I have often seen two, at the 
same moment, visit the same flower, and very peaceably despoil it of its 
treasures, without any contention for the best share. 
As the poison of bees exhales a penetrating odour, M. Huber was 
curious to obserye the effect it might produce upon them. Having ex- 
tracted with pincers the sting of a bee and its appendages impregnated with 
poison, he presented it to some workers, which were settled very tranquilly 
before the gate of their mansion. Instantaneously the little party was 
alarmed : none, however, took flight ; but two or three darted upon the 
poisoned instrument, and one angrily attacked the observer. When, how- 
ever, the poison was coagulated, they were not in the least affected by it. 
a 
after which they were hived in the regular way, and appeared to be doing well. 
On the Saturday after, a swarm of bees, from some neighbouring hive, appeared to 
be flying over the garden in which the hive above mentioned was placed, when 
they instantly darted down upon the hiye of the new settlers, and completely co- 
vered it: ina little time they began to enter the hive, and poured into it in such 
numbers that it soon became cotapletsly filled, A loud humming noise was heard, 
and the work of destruction immediately ensued; the winged combatants sallied 
forth from the hive, until it became entirely empty; and furious battle com- 
menced in “upper air,” between the besiegers and the besieged. A spectator in- 
forms us, that these intrepid little warriors were so numerous, that they literally 
darkened the sky over-head like a cloud; meanwhile the destructive battle raged 
with fury on both sides, and the ground beneath was covered with the wounded and 
the slain; hundreds of them were lying dead, or crawling about, disabled from 
reascending to the scene of action. ‘To one party, however, the palm of victory was 
at last awarded; and they settled upon the branch of an adjoining apple-tree, from 
which they were safely placed in the empty hive, which had been: the object of 
their valiant contention, and where they now continue peacefully and industriously 
employed in adding to the stores of their commonwealth, 
1 Comp, Schirach, 49, Mills, 62, Thorley, 163, 2 51. 
