THE HONEY-BEE. 139 



late habitation. There they hover for a moment, 

 reeling backwards and forwards, while some of the 

 body search in the vicinity for a tree or bush which 

 may serve as a rallying-point for the emigrants. To 

 this they repair by degrees, and provided their Queen 

 has alighted there, all, or at least the greater part, 

 crowd around, and form a dense group, sometimes 

 rounded like a ball, sometimes clustered like a bunch 

 of grapes, according to the nature of the resting-place 

 they have fixed on. (Plate VII.) The Queen is 

 not always foremost; it is frequently, or rather 

 generally, not till after the departure of a consider- 

 able number of workers that she makes her appear- 

 ance ; and when she does come, it is with a timid 

 irresolute air, as if she were borne along, almost 

 against her will, by the torrent that streams out of 

 the hive, for she often turns on the threshold, as if 

 about to re-enter, and in fact frequently does so, but 

 cannot long resist the opposing crowd.* 



The first swarm is invariably led off by the old 

 Queen. This has been ascertained by actual obser- 

 vation. The Queen leading off a first swarm in one 

 year, has been marked by depriving her of one of 

 her antennae, and has been found at the head of a first 

 swarm in the year following. This experiment has 

 been so often repeated, and with results so uniform, as 

 to put the fact beyond all doubt. Besides, in examin- 

 ing those hives in which first swarms have been 

 placed, eggs will be found in the cells on the second 



* Feburier. 



