30 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. I. 



and round in circles, and at last settled in a solid 

 mass on one of the branches of a neighbouring 

 tree. As soon as Reaumur saw this, he ran to dis- 

 cover the queen, and found her, not in this mass, 

 but quietly seated on a leaf, and at a little distance 

 from it, " apparently," says he, " as if aware that it 

 would be inconvenient to bear the whole weight of 

 her subjects." It would seem that she had but to 

 indicate the spot near which the bees were to settle, 

 by hovering round it, in order to bring them thither. 

 As soon as the cluster which had settled on the 

 branch had become of considerable size, she quitted 

 the leaf on which she had settled, and joined them. 

 This was sufficient to attract the others, which were 

 still circling about in the air, and she was soon co- 

 vered and concealed by them. 



" These bees," says Reaumur, " seemed to have 

 good reasons for quitting the hive. Instinct, no 

 doubt, taught them that their present habitation was 

 too small to accommodate the numerous progeny of 

 the queen, and afford room for the necessary cells." 



Thinking that the disproportion between the num- 

 ber of the bees and the size of the hive might have 

 been the cause of their disgust, Reaumur this time 

 contrived to enclose only four or five hundred along 

 with the queen. But this step proved unfortunate. 

 The little colony remained in the greatest agitation, 

 and altogether neglected the queen, who wandered 

 up and down quite unattended and in the most deso- 

 late condition. The rest, however, who had not 

 been enclosed with the queen, did not imitate the 

 example of her fellow-captives, but soon found her 

 out ; and, not being able to obtain admission, covered 

 the hive in a mass. Having got rid of these, he 

 was desirous of trying whether those bees which, 

 three days before, on the original division of the 

 swarm, had been separated from the queen, would 

 recognise her after this lapse of time. Having 

 placed the little glass hive near the box in which 



