workers anxiously
pursue a queen. He thought they designed to sting her, and thence
concluded, that the office of the common bees is to kill supernumerary
queens. You have quoted his observations in the _Contemplation de la
Nature, part II, chap. 27, note 7_. But you are sensible, Sir, from
these details, that he has been mistaken. He did not know the attention
that bees bestow on what passes at the entrance of their hive, and he
was entirely ignorant of the means they take to prevent supernumerary
queens from penetrating it.

* * * * *

After ascertaining that the workers in no situation sting the
supernumerary queens, we were curious to learn how a stranger queen
would be received in a hive wanting a reigning one. To elucidate this
matter, we made numerous experiments, the detail of which would protract
this letter too much, therefore I shall relate only the principal
results.

Bees do not immediately observe the removal of their queen; their
labours are uninterrupted; they watch over the young, and perform all
their ordinary occupations. But, in a few hours, agitation ensues; all
appears a scene of tumult in the hive. A singular humming is heard; the
bees desert their young; and rush over the surface of the combs with a
delirious impetuosity. Then they discover their queen is no longer among
them. But how do they become sensible of it? How do the bees on the
surface of the comb discover that the queen is not on the next comb? In
treating of another characteristic of these animals, you have yourself,
Sir, proposed the same question; I am incapable of answering it indeed,
but I have collected some facts, that may perhaps facilitate the
elucidation of this mystery.

I cannot doubt that the agitation arises from the workers having lost
their queen; for on restoring her, tranquillity is instantly regained
among them; and, what is very singular, they _recognise_ her: you must
interpret this expression strictly. Substitution of another queen is not
attended with the same effect, if she is introduced into the hive within
the first twelve hours after removal of the reigning one. Here the
agitation continues; and the bees treat the stranger the same as when
the presence of their own leaves them nothing to desire. They surround,
seize, and keep her captive, a very long time, in an impenetrable
cluster; and she commonly dies either from hunger or privation of air.

If eighteen hours elapse b