PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 1G5 



the masses of pollen on their hind legs, ran wildly 

 about. At length there was a general rush to the out- 

 lets 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 moisture. This intolerable heat determines 

 the most irresolute to leave the hive. Immediately 

 before the swarming, 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 fallijig 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 clus- 

 tered, she joins it: after this it thickens more and more, 

 all tlie bees that are in the air hastening to their com- 

 panions and their queen, so as to form a living mass of 

 animals supporting themselves upon each other by the 

 claws of their feet. Thus they sometimes are so con- 

 catenated, each bee suspending its legs to those of an- 

 other, as to form living chaplets''. After this they soon 



" Huher, i. 251. 



'' SoiiiP crUics liave found fault with i\Ir. Soathry for ascribing to Cnia- 

 deo, (iio Ciipi-l of Li)dian mytlioloi^}-, in his Curse of Kchnnut, a bdw 

 stvun^ withijees. Tiie idea is not so absv\rd as they imagine; and (he 

 poet doubtless was led to it by his knowledge of the natural liistory of 

 these aiiimals, and that they furm themselves into strings or chaplets- — 

 See Reaum, v. t. xxii. /, 3. 



