PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



143 



and in hives deprived of their queen, they also find a secure 

 asylum. 1 



What it is that, in the former instance, excites the fury of 

 the bees against the males, is not easy to discover ; but some 

 conjecture may perhaps be formed from the circumstance last 

 related. When only males are produced by the queen, the 

 bees seem aware that something more is wanted, and retain 

 the males ; the same is the case when they have no queen ; 

 and when one is procured, they appear to know that she would 

 not profit them without the males. Their fury then is con- 

 nected with their utility : when the queen is impregnated, 

 which lasts for her whole life, as if they knew that the drones 

 could be of no further use, and would only consume their 

 winter stores of provision, they destroy them ; which surely 

 is more merciful than expelling them, in which case they must 

 inevitably perish from hunger. But when the queen only 

 produces males, their numbers are not sufficient to cause 

 alarm ; and the same reasoning applies to the case when there 

 is no queen. 



Having brought the males from their cradle to their un- 

 timely grave, and amused you with the little that is known of 

 their uneventful history, I shall now, at last, call you to 

 attend to the proceedings of the workers themselves ; and here 

 I am afraid, long as I have detained you, I must still press 

 you to expatiate with me in a more ample field; but the 

 spectacles you will behold during our excursion will repay, I 

 promise you, any delay or trouble it may occasion. 



When I consider the proceedings of these little creatures, 

 both in the hive and out of it, they are so numerous and mul- 

 tifarious that I scarcely know where to begin. You have 

 already, however, heard much of their internal labours, in the 

 care and nurture of the young ; the construction of their 

 combs ; and their proceedings with respect to their queens 

 and their paramours. It will therefore change the scene a 

 little, if we accompany them in their excursions to collect the 



1 Huber, i. 199. 



