320 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



take the honey which he offered her when separated 

 from the swarm.* 



Dr Evens relates a case in which also the queen's 

 guard, if we may call them so, remained faithful to 

 the death. In a thinly peopled hive he observed a 

 queen lying on some honey-comb apparently dying, 

 and surrounded by six bees with their faces turned 

 towards her, quivering their wings and holding their 

 stings unsheathed and brandished, like a sentinel with 

 his fixed bayonet. He presented these guardian bees 

 with honey, but though it was eagerly eaten by the 

 other bees, they seemed so completely absorbed in 

 their care of the queen, that they would not touch a 

 drop. The queen died; yet on the following day he 

 found her body still guarded, and though supplied 

 with honey the bees gradually pined, and in three or 

 four days ihey were all dead.| 



It was by taking advantage of this attachment 

 that Wildman was wont to perform feats with bees, 

 which astonished all that witnessed them, as Dr 

 Evans gives it: 



' Such was the spell, which round a Wildman's arm 

 Twin'd in dark wreaths the fascinated swarm; 

 Bright o'er his breast the glittering legions led. 

 Or with a living garland bound his head. 

 His dexterous hand, with firm jet hurtless hold. 

 Could seize the chief, known by her scales of gold. 

 Prune, 'mid the wandering throng, her filmy wing, 

 Or o'er her folds the silken fetter fling.' 



The Bees. 



' Long experience has taught me,' says Wildman 

 himself, ' that as soon as I turn up a hive, and give 

 same taps on the sides and bottom, the queen im- 

 mediately appears. Being accustomed to see her, I 



* Warder's True Amazons, or Monarchy of the Bees. 

 t The Bees, a Poem; notes. 



