THE PASTORAL BEES. 81 
the summit, hat in hand, the bees had just come up 
and were all about him. Presently he noticed them 
hovering about his straw hat, and alighting on his 
arm ; and in almost as brief a time as it takes to re- 
late it, the whole swarm had followed the queen into 
his hat. Being near a stone wall, he coolly deposited 
his prize upon it, quickly disengaged himself from 
the accommodating bees, and returned for a hive. 
The explanation of this singular circumstance no 
doubt is, that the queen, unused to such long and 
heavy flights, was obliged to alight from very ex- 
haustion. It is not very unusual for swarms to be 
thus found in remote fields, collected upon a bush or 
branch of a tree. 
When a swarm migrates to the woods in this man- 
ner, the individual bees, as I have intimated, do not 
move in right Imes or straight forward, like a flock 
of birds, but round and round, like chaff in a whirl- 
wind. Unitedly they form a humming, revolving, 
nebulous mass, ten or fifteen feet across, which keeps 
just high enough to clear all obstacles, except in ~ 
crossing deep valleys, when, of course, it may be 
very high. The swarm seems to be guided by a line 
of couriers, which may be seen (at least at the out- 
set) constantly going and coming. As they take a 
direct course, there is always some chance of follow- 
ing them to the tree, unless they go a long distance, 
and some obstruction, like a wood, or a swamp, or a 
high hill, intervenes—enough chance, at any rate, 
to stimulate the lookers-on to give vigorous chase 
as long as their wind holds out. If the bees are 
successfully followed to their retreat, two plans are 
feasible: either to fell the tree at once, and seek to 
hive them, perhaps bring them home in the section of 
