gent food prepared by the workers for the
express purpose of feeding the grubs that are to be future queens, and
is more stimulating than the food given to the common grubs.

Should it happen, as is sometimes the case, that the queen bee be
killed, or the hive in any manner be deprived during the first eleven
months of her existence, and before she has deposited any royal eggs,
the most extraordinary circumstances occur. After a little while, a
hubbub commences, work is abandoned, the whole hive is in an uproar,
every bee traverses the hive at random, with the most evident want of
purpose. This state of confusion sometimes continues for several days,
then the bees gather in knots and clusters of a dozen or so, as though
engaged in consultation; shortly after which, a resolution appears to
have been taken by the whole population. Some of the workers select
one of the worker-eggs, which had been previously deposited by the lost
sovereign. Three cells are thrown into one for its reception,--the eggs
in the two other cells being destroyed. The grub when hatched is fed
with the royal jelly, and a queen is produced. Even if the grub had been
hatched and partly fed as a worker, and had only received two or three
days' allowance of the royal food, the result would be the same,--they
emerge from the pupa perfect queens whereas, had they remained in the
cells which they originally inhabited, they would have turned out
workers.

We now come to that period of the year when the queen insects, having
undergone the change to the pupa state, are nearly ready to burst into
life. It is now that the old queen mother, losing all her parental
feelings, becomes infuriated: she rushes to the cells wherein are
deposited the future queens, and instantly begins to tear them open. The
guards which surround the cells make way for her approach, and suffer
her to act as she pleases, whereupon she slaughters the inmates with her
sting, without remorse, and, after a short time, a great portion of the
working bees accompanying her, rushes out of the hive, and seeks another
dwelling. This is called "swarming."

Something very like concerted action and foresight seems to belong to
these proceedings. It is always in calm weather, when the sky is serene,
between nine in the morning and four in the afternoon, when they quit
their habitation. After flying about for some time in a cluster, by
degrees they fix themselves on a branch, form a group there by ho