THE BEE. 573 
is fooii as they have fucceeded, they lick it up, allowing 
the former proprietor to walk away. 
Battles far more fatal and general are occalioned whert 
a neighbouring f.vartn, from poverty, or a principle of 
injuftice, invade a hive already occupied. Scarcely have 
they entered tile walls of the city, when a bloody en- 
gagement enfues t Thofe who have the right of poffeffion 
oppofe their invaders with all their forces, and with un- 
daunted courage ; not a minute paffes that you do not 
obferve a victorious bee dragging to the door of the hive 
a dead adverfary, or one who is yet ftruggling in all the 
agonies of death. Thefe engagements do not clofe hut 
•with the day ; and before victory declares for either party, 
they often coft thoufands their lives ; for very often the 
one who lias flung its opponent leaves its weapon in the 
wound, an accident which proves fatal to itielf. 
Infects of their own fpecies are far from being the only 
enemies which the bees have to fear ; worms, wafps, hor- 
nets, and infeCts of different kinds, never fail to make 
their way into the hive, wherever any rent or crevice is 
left open. When attacked by thefe robbers, they perifli 
in the unequal combat; and when dead, their bodies are 
ripped up, in order to extract from them the honey they 
contain. Apprifed of the fatal eonfequences of admitting 
them into the hive, the bees carefully fill up every chink 
and crevice, not with wax, but with the glutinous matter 
that exfudes from certain trees, a fubftance ftill more te~ 
naceous. When a bee enters the hive loaded with a 
quantity of this fluff, it is met by others, who take final! 
particles of it, and apply it to the fides of the part to be 
Hopped up, till they are entirely clofed. 
A fwarm of bees, however numerous, as we have al- 
ready feen, all owe their birth to a Angle female. This 
Vol. Ill, 3 T queen, 
