lose her life in the battle. In the third and last
charge the fertile queen managed to seize her
antagonist by the side, and in an instant her
sting was plunged into her belly, and the death
of her opponent was instantaneous. The next
experiment tried was the introduction of a fertile
queen into a hive. The bees had no sooner
caught sight of the stranger than several of them
surrounded her and held her fast; they did not
attempt to sting her or to hurt her in any way,
their only object appeared to be to prevent her
from getting away. Presently the queen of the
hive, who appeared to have been informed of
the arrival of a stranger within her dominions,
made her appearance, attended by a large body
of her subjects. On seeing her, the bees who
surrounded the stranger moved away and left a
clear space for the fight. In this case, also, the
two queens seized each other in such a way that
both were in a position to give the death-stroke,
but either because, as some think, they were so
deeply impressed with the disastrous consequence
to the colony should it be left without a
ruler, or, as seems to me more natural to
suppose, from an instinctive dread of the sting
in their own case, they parted with every
indication of horror, and moved away in opposite
directions. Both seemed desirous of
discontinuing the conflict, but the workers held them
by the legs whenever they attempted to force a
way through them, and waited with patient
watchfulness for the renewal of the fight, which
was only ended when one of the combatants was
killed.

In these experiments, which were repeated
many times, it might be inferred from the
conduct of the workers that they could not distinguish
between their own queen and the stranger
queen, and that it was from mere instinct that
they compelled them to fight until only one
queen was left in the hive, or otherwise they
would put the intruder to death, which it
certainly would be very easy for them to do. But
there is no doubt they do know their own queen;
they never interfere with her movements, but a
strange queen introduced into the hive was
invariably seized and kept a prisoner, and so
closely enveloped by her jailers that she was
sometimes suffocated from the length of time
they kept her in that position; but in no
case did this appear to be other than the
effect of accident, for they never ill used or
stung her. They never, however, released the
stranger unless their own queen manifested
a desire to attack her, in which case they
withdrew from her with the greatest alacrity,
as though they were really anxious to see the
fight.

Experiments were tried by Huber to ascertain
how a hive of bees would behave towards a
stranger queen after they had lost their own.
He removed the native queen, and after a few
hours he introduced a strange queen into the
hive. The bees which mount guard at the
entrance of the hive immediately seized her and
made her a prisoner, precisely as they would
have done if their queen had still been among
them. They did this each time the experiment
was repeated. An interval of sixteen hours
was suffered to elapse from the time they
discovered the loss of their queen, and then a
stranger queen was introduced into the hive.
She was treated precisely as the others had
been, as were also her successors in similar
experiments, but in some instances, where they
survived the pressure, want of air, and hunger
for several hours, they were allowed to assume
the position of queen of the hive. Twenty-four
hours were then suffered to elapse after their
queen had been taken away, before a foreign
queen was put into the hive, and instead of
being made a prisoner she was welcomed with
every sign of joy, and at once accepted as their
queen; evidently they had arrived at the
conclusion, that, from the length of time that had
elapsed, there was no chance of their own queen
coining back. It must have been from reasoning
in this way, because it was always the case,
that if twenty-four hours had passed since she
disappeared, the new queen was received with
respect and obedience. A very striking
instance of this is related. The lawful queen
was removed at a time when she was busily
engaged in laving eggs. After a time the news
spread through the hive, and the usual consternation
prevailed. They were left in this condition
a great many hours, their agitation being
the greater that no new queen was ready for
release from her cell; in fact, none of the royal
cells had been built. They therefore proceeded
to enlarge some of the cells containing the eggs
of workers in the manner described in a
previous article. A stranger queen was then
introduced, and directly she entered the hive,
those who guarded the entrance, instead of
making her a prisoner, received her with the
greatest respect and satisfaction; they
approached her and touched her with their
antennæ, and gave her food. The news began to
circulate through the hive that a new monarch
had arrived, and the bees kept pouring in, all of
which drew near in succession, and performed
the same ceremony. She had been placed in
the hive on one side of the comb, which hung
down vertically like a curtain, and separated
her from the workers on the other side.
Presently she moved round to that side, and no
sooner had she made her appearance there
than the bees at once acknowledged her
as their queen; they abandoned their occupations,
approached her, and touched her with
their antennæ, and caressed her with their fore
legs, each after it had performed the ceremony
walking away again to its work, or joining the
crowd of spectators who accompanied her in
her progress until she had visited every part of
the community. A very curious circumstance,
and one which looks like the result of reasoning,
in fact must have been the result of reasoning,
was this: that the workers who had continued
the operation of enlarging the cells for the purpose
of convening workers into royal brood,
before they were aware of her presence in the
hive, had no sooner recognised the new queen