184- 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
characteristic as are the motions of a pickpocket to a skilful 
policeman. Its sneaking look, and nervous, guilty agitation, 
once seen, can never be mistaken.’ It is, at any rate, natural that 
a bee which enters a wrong hive by accident should be much 
surprised and alarmed, and would thus probably betray herself. 
On the whole, then, I do not attach much importance to 
their recognition of one another as an indication of intelligence 
Since their extreme eagerness for honey may be attributed 
rather to their anxiety for the common weal than to their desire 
for personal gratification, it cannot fairly be imputed as greedi 
ness ; still the following scene, one which most of us have wit- 
nessed, is incompatible surely with much intelligence. The sad 
fate of their unfortunate companions does not in the least deter 
others who approach the tempting lure from madly alighting 
on the bodies of the dying and dead, to share the same miserable 
end. No one can understand the extent of then* infatuation 
until he has seen a confectioner’s shop assailed by myriads of 
hungry bees. I have seen thousands strained out from the 
syrup in which they had perished ; thousands more alighting 
even upon the boiling sweets, the floor covered and windows 
darkened with bees, some crawling, others flying, and others 
still, so completely besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor 
fly, not one in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, and 
yet the air filled with new hosts of thoughtless comers. 
Passing on now to the statements of other observers, 
Hnber first noticed the remarkable fact that when bee- 
hives are attacked by the death’s-head moth the bees 
close the entrance of their hive with wax and propolis to 
keep out the marauder. The barricade, which is built 
immediately behind the gateway, completely stops it up 
— only a small hole being left large enough to admit a 
bee, and therefore of course too small to admit the moth. 
Huber specially states that it was not until the beehives 
had been repeatedly attacked and robbed by the death’s- 
head moth, that the bees closed the entrance of their hive 
with wax and propolis. Pure instinct w^ould have induced 
the bees to provide against the first attack. Huber also 
observed that a w T all built in 1804 against the death’s- 
head hawk-moth was destroyed in 1805. In the latter 
year there were no death’s-head moths, nor were any seen 
during the following. But in the autumn of 1807 a large 
number again appeared, and the bees at once protected 
