112 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



It is to be observed that this agitation, excited by the queen, increases 

 the customary heat of the hive to a very high temperature, which the 

 action of the sun augments till it becomes intolerable, and which often 

 causes the bees accumulated near the mouth of the hive to perspire so 

 copiously, that those near the bottom, who support the weight of the rest, 

 appear drenched with the moisture. This intolerable heat determines 

 the most irresolute to leave the hive. Immediately before the svvarhiing, 

 a louder hum than usual is heard ; many bees take flight ; and if the 

 (jueen be at their head, or soon follows them, in a moment the rest rise 

 in crowds after her into the air, and the element is filled with bees 

 ns thick as the falling snow. The queen at first does not alight upon 

 the branch on which the swarm fixes ; but as soon as a group is formed 

 and clustered, she joins it: after this it thickens more and more, all the 

 bees that are in, the air hastening to their companions and their queen, 

 so as to form a living mass of animals supporting themselves upon each 

 by the claws of their feet. Thus they sometimes are so concatenated, 

 each bee suspending its legs to those of another, as to form living chap- 

 lets.^ After this they soon become tranquil, and none are seen in the 

 air. Before they are housed they often begin to construct a little comb 

 on the branch on which they alight.^ Sometimes it happens that two 

 queens go out with the same swarm ; and the result is, that the swarm 

 at first divides into two bodies, one under each leader; but as one of 

 these groups is generally much less numerous than the other, the smallest 

 at last joins the largest, accompanied by the queen to whom they had 

 attached themselves ; and, when they are hived, tliis unfortunate candi- 

 date for empire falls sooner or later a victim to the jealousy of her rival. 

 Till this great question is decided, the bees do not settle to their usual 

 labors. If no queen goes out with a swarm, they return to the hive from 

 whence they came. 



As in regular monarchies, so in this of the bees, the first born is probably 

 the fortunate candidate for the throne. She is usually the most active 

 and vigorous ; the most able to take flight ; and in the best condition to 

 lay eggs. Though the queen that is victorious, and mounts the throne, is 

 not, as Virgil asserts, resplendent with gold and purple, and her rival 

 hideous, slothful, and unwieldy^, yet some differences are observable; the 

 successful candidate is usually redder and larger than the others: these 

 last, upon dissection, appear to have no eggs ready for laying, while the 

 former, which is a powerful recommendation, is usually full of them. Eggs 

 are commonly found in the cells twenty-four hours after swarming, or at 

 the latest two or three days. 



You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emigrate from the parent 

 liive are the youth of the colony ; but this is not the case, for bees of all 



' Som3 critics have found fault with Mr. Southey for ascribing, in his Curse of Kehama, 

 to Camrieo, the Cupid of Indian mythology, a bow strung with bees. The idea is not so 

 absurd as they imagine; and the poet doubtless was led to it by his knowledge of the natu- 

 ral history of these animals, and that they form themselves into strings or chaplets. — See 

 Keaum. v. t. xxii. f. 3. 

 * Reaumur, 615 — fi44. 

 3 " Ai:er erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens, 



(Nam duo sunt genera) hie mclior, insignis et ore, -^ 

 Et rutilis clarus squamis : ille horridus alter 

 DesidiA latamque trahens inglorius alvum." 



Georg. iv. 91 — . 



