^58 INSECT MISCELLANtES. 



We then enlarg^ed the entrance of the one selected 

 from which the males immediately took flight, and 

 soon afterwards the young qneen made her appear- 

 ance ; but she remained at first on the board, tra- 

 versing it and brushing herself with her legs, and 

 apparently unnoticed either by the workers or the 

 males. At length she took flight, but proceeded 

 only a few feet from the hive, to which she immediately 

 returned, as if for the purpose of examining objects 

 that she might again recognise. She then flew away, 

 describing horizontal circles, twelve or fifteen feet 

 above the earth. In order that she might not escape 

 our observation on her return, we contracted the 

 entrance of the hive, and placed ourselves at the 

 centre of the circles described in her flight, that we 

 might the more easily witness her movements; but 

 to our great regret and disappointment, she rapidly 

 rose out of sight. We resumed our place before the 

 hive, and in seven minutes she returned to the 

 entrance, probably to make another survey of its 

 locality. We permitted her to enter the hive, and in 

 a quarter of an hour she re-appeared, and after 

 brushing herself as before, took to flight, soon rising 

 so high that we lost sight of her. This second ab- 

 sence was much longer than the first, lasting for 

 twenty-seven minutes ; but we found her, at her 

 return, in a different condition, which left no doubt 

 of her having paired. We then confined her rigidly 

 to the hive, and within two days she deposited nearly 

 a hundred fertile eggs in workers' cells. The same 

 experiments were repeated on virgin-queens, eleven, 

 twenty, twenty-five, and thirty days old, with similar 

 results*." 



These observations seem now to be universally 

 admitted among scientific naturalists; though it is the 

 general opinion, we believe, of those who only keep 

 * Huber on Bees, page 23, 



