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166 discontented with the grind of daily toil, and so begin robbing their neighbours.

HOW THE ROBBING IS DONE

The robber, unless she be hardened by success, alights on the threshold of the hive which contains coveted stores with an air that is decidedly apologetic, having the general appearance of a prospecting dog with his tail apprehensively between his legs. She shows her guilty conscience by dodging back if she meets one of the legitimate owners coming out of the hive; she is thus trying the skill and prowess of the sentinels, for if by assuming bravado she can pass the sentinels she is usually safe; then she has nothing to do but to fill with honey and to run the gauntlet of the sentinels again, for perchance some of them may stop her and ask her why she is going out of the hive filled with honey, a proceeding altogether reprehensible in the bee world. If she succeeds in carrying back to her own hive the honey thus stolen, she creates great excitement there and soon she leads back a mob to pillage; and the air is full of bees bent on wickedness. Mr. Root describes graphically the successful robber thus: "A bee that has stolen a load is generally very plump and full, and as it comes out has a hurried and guilty look; besides it is almost always wiping its mouth like a man who has just come out of a beer shop. Most of all it finds it a little difficult to take wing as bees ordinarily do because of its weight." As a consequence a robber bee borne down with its load