162 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



At length there was a general rush to the outlets of the 

 hive, which the queen accompanied, and the swarm 

 took place*. 



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 mois- 

 ture. This intolerable heat determines the most irreso- 

 lute to leave the hive. Immediately before the swarm- 

 ing, a louder hum than usual is heard, many bees take 

 flight, and, if the queen 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 as 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 them- 

 selves 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 chaplets ^. 



' Huber, i. 251. 



' Sonic critics have found fault with Mr. Southey for ascribing, in 

 his Curse of Kehama, to Camdeo, the Cupid of hidiau 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 natural 

 history of these animals, and that they form themselves into strings 

 or chaplets. — See Rcauoi. v. t, xxii./. 3. 



