18 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



When a swarm migrates to the woods in this 

 manner, the individual bees, as I have intimated, 

 do not move in right lines or straight forward, like 

 a flock of birds, but rovmd and round, like chaff in 

 a whirlwind. Unitedly they form a humming, re- 

 volving, 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 outset) constantly going and coming. As they 

 take a direct course, there is always some chance of 

 following them to the tree, unless they go a long dis- 

 tance, 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 sec- 

 tion of the tree that contains the cavity; or to leave 

 the tree till fall, then invite your neighbors and 

 go and cut it, and see the ground flow with honey. 

 The former course is more business-like; but the 

 latter is the one usually recommended by one's 

 friends and neighbors. 



Perhaps nearly one third of all the runaway 

 swarms leave when no one is about, and hence are 

 unseen and unheard, save, perchance, by some dis- 

 tant laborers in the field, or by some youth plowing 

 on the side of the mountain, who hears an imusual 



