PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 211 



clei-n exliiblter of bees : and we may justly say of him 



now, 



" Thou, 



Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 



Should'st VVildman be."» 



The worker bees are annual insects, though the queen 

 will sometimes live more Ihan two years; but, as every 

 swarm consists of old and young, this is no argument 

 for burning them. It is a saying of bee-ke6pers in Hol- 

 land, that the first swallow and the first bee foretell 

 each other''. This perhaps may be correct there ; but 

 with us the appearance of bees considerably precedes 

 that of the swallow; for when the early crocuses open, 

 if the weather be warm, they may always be found busy 

 in the blossom. 



The time that bees will inhabit the same stations is 

 wonderful. Reaumur mentions a countryman who pre- 

 served bees in the same hive for thirty years'^. Thor- 

 ley tells us that a swarm took possession of a spot un- 

 der the leads of the study of Ludovicus Vives in Ox- 

 ford, where they continued a hundred and ten years, 

 from 1520 to 1630''. These circumstances have led 

 authors to ascribe to bees a greater age than they can 

 claim. Thus MoutFet, because he knew a bees-nest 

 which had remained thirty years in the same quarters, 

 concludes that they are very long-lived, and very sapi- 

 ently doubts whether they even die of old age at all*! ! ! 

 Which is just as wise as if a man should contend, be- 

 cause London had existed from before the time of Ju- 



• White's Nat. Hist. 8vo. i. 339— " Swamm, Bib. Nat. Ed. Hill, 



i, 160. '^ ubi fupr. (365. * 178— * Thtatr. Ins. '2\. 



T 2 



