SEES. 55 



granted, as we do, when we hear nothing* about our g'racious 

 sovereign, that all went well. But if, on the contrary, the 

 bees hear the terrible news that their queen is missing, that 

 no one knows where she is, or when she will return — what 

 do the poor distracted creatures do ? Shakspeare says — 



" The Commons, like an angry hive of bees 

 That want their leader, scatter up and down, 

 And care not whom they sting." 



Bees' loyalty is no lip loyalty. Dearly do they love her, 

 raid, so far as they can, protect her. Dr. Warder tested 

 this, somewhat cruelly but most decisively. " Having 

 shaken on the grass all the bees from a hive which they had 

 only tenanted the day before, he searched for the queen by 

 stirring amongst them with a stick. Having found and 

 ]:»laced her, with a few attendants, in a box, she was taken 

 into his parlour, where the box being- opened, she and her 

 attendants immediately flew to the window, when he clipped 

 off one of her wings, returned her to the box, and confined 

 her there for above an hour. In less than a quarter of an 

 hour the swarm ascertained the loss of their queen, and, in- 

 stead of clustering together in one social mass, they diffused 

 themselves over a space of several feet, were much agitated, 

 and uttered a piteous sound. An hour afterwards, they all 

 took flight, and settled upon the hedge where they had first 

 alighted after leaving the parent stock ; but instead of hang- 

 ing together like a bunch of grapes, as when the queen was 

 with them, and as swarms usually hang, they extended 

 themselves thirty feet along the hedge, in small bunches of 

 forty, fifty, or more. The queen was now presented to 

 them, when they all quietly gathered round her, witli a joy- 

 ful hum, and formed one harmonious cluster. At night the 

 doctor hived them again, and on the following morning- 

 repeated his experiment, to see whether the bees would rise. 

 The queen being in a mutilated state, and unable to accom- 

 pany them, they surrounded her for several hours, apparently 

 willing to die. with her rather than desert her in distress. 

 The queen was a second time removed, when they spread 

 themselves out again, as though searching for her. Her 

 repeated restoration to them, at different parts of their 

 circle, produced one uniform result; and these poor, loval. 



