80 



ELEMENTARY STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE 



ousy of the queens, makes the es- 

 tablishment of a new home neces- 

 sary. On some bright spring 

 morning, therefore, in every well- 

 established colony there arises a 

 great commotion, attended by un- 

 nsnal bnzzing sounds. The bees 

 begin to pour forth in an impet- 

 iion s current. The crowd of merry 

 hummers, circling, fill the air witli 

 an indescribable rustling murmur. 

 More keep crowding through the 

 doorway, until the air is darkened 

 by a large and giddy circle of bees. 

 In a little while the center grows 

 darker, and this in the vicinity of 

 some branch upon which all pour 

 down in the same fashion that they 

 left the hive. Somewhere within 

 this living mass is the queen of the 

 hive. Here they " settle " to await, 

 we have reason to believe, the return of the couriers 

 sent to spy out the land. Good reports being received, 

 they are up and away to the place sought out, The 

 would-be emigrants, evidently aware of the contingencies 

 of such a journey, make full preparations by filling their 

 honey-sacs before leaving the old hive. This amount of 

 food will by economy furnish a week's subsistence. 



This is " swarming," and you will readily see that 

 this procedure is in the interests of the race; for if 

 all lived in one household, however large it might bo 



FIG. 65. A newly settled 

 swarm. Photographed from 

 life. (Courtesy of the Cen- 

 tury Co.) 



