170 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
happens that the plundered hive offers no resistance at all, 
owing to the robbers having visited the same flowers a? 
the robbed, and so probably (having much the same smell) 
not being recognised as belonging to a different com- 
munity. The thieves, when they And such to be the case, 
may become so bold as to stop the bees that are returning 
to the hive with their loads, of which they deprive them 
at the entrance of the hive. This is done by a process 
which one observer, Weygandt , 1 calls 6 milking , 5 and it 
seems that the milking bee attains the double advantage 
of securing the honey from the milked one and disarming 
suspicion of the other bees by contracting its smell and 
entering the hive loaded, into which it is admitted with- 
out opposition to continue its plunder. 
Sometimes robber-bees attack their victims in the 
fields at a distance from the hives. This sort of high- 
way robbery is generally conducted by a gang of four or 
five robber-bees which set upon a single honest bee, 
6 hold him by the legs, and pinch him until he unfolds 
his tongue, wdiich is sucked in succession by his assailants, 
who then suffer him to depart in peace . 5 
It is strange that hive-bees of dishonest tempera- 
ments seem able to coax or wheedle humble-bees into the 
voluntary yielding of honey. 6 Humble-bees have been 
known to permit hive-bees to take the wdiole honey that 
they have collected, and to go on gathering more, and 
handing it over, for three w'eeks, although they refuse to 
part with it, or seek refuge in flight, when wasps make 
similar overtures . 5 2 
Besides theft and plunder, there are other causes o f 
warfare among bees, which, however, are only apparent in 
their effects. Thus, for some undiscernible reason, duels 
are not infrequent, which generally end in the death of 
one or both combatants. At other times, equally without 
apparent reason, civil war breaks out in a hive, which is 
sometimes attended with much slaughter. 
Architecture.— Coming now to the construction of the 
cells and combs, there is no doubt that here we meet with 
3 The Bee, 1877, No. 1. 
2 Dr. Lindley Kemp, Indications of Instinct. 
