receives by its approach to, entrance into, or passage by differently 

 disposed surfaces, he reserves for a second part of this paper, to be 

 hereafter communicated. 



On the Economy of Bees. In a Letter from Thomas Andrew Knight, 

 Esq. F.R.S. to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. K.B. 

 P.R.S. Read May 14, 1807. [Phil. Trans. 1807, p. 234.] 



During the progress of the various experiments on vegetation, of 

 which Mr. Knight has communicated accounts to the Society, he 

 has had opportunities of paying considerable attention to the economy 

 of bees, and has observed many interesting circumstances, that ap- 

 pear to have been overlooked by former writers. 



A general opinion prevails that every hive remains at all times 

 unconnected with other colonies in the neighbourhood, and that 

 strangers are always considered as enemies. Mr. Knight, on the 

 contrary, has in several instances witnessed a friendly intercourse to 

 take place between different colonies, and he imagines it to be pro- 

 ductive of important consequences in their political economy. 



Having observed several bees flying one evening at a later hour 

 than they usually work, he endeavoured to discover how they were 

 employed, and he found them to be passing in a direct line from one 

 of his own hives to that of a cottager, about 100 yards distant. There 

 was a considerable degree of bustle and agitation in each of these 

 hives ; every bee as it arrived seemed to be stopped and questioned 

 at the mouth of each hive, but there was no appearance of hostility 

 or resistance. This kind of intercourse continued, in a greater or 

 less degree, during the eight following days, and appeared to be ami- 

 cable for the whole of that time. But on the 10th their friendship 

 terminated in a quarrel, and they fought desperately. 



Mr. Knight has had other opportunities of observing a similar in- 

 tercourse with the same result ; but he has reason to think that it 

 not unfrequently terminates in a junction of the two swarms ; and 

 he remembers to have observed, many years ago, circumstances per- 

 fectly similar in one hive followed by desertion of the labouring bees, 

 who left the drones alone in possession of the hive, but without any- 

 thing to live upon. He further thinks, that when a junction is de- 

 termined upon, they remove immediately, and return only during the 

 day for the purpose of carrying off the honey. 



Mr. Knight has also remarked the manner in which colonies of 

 bees, proposing to emigrate, fix upon their future habitation. He 

 has frequently noticed an examination of certain hollow trees to take 

 place for many days together by detachments of bees, from twenty 

 to fifty in number. This examination was not confined to the mere 

 cavity, but extended to the external parts of the tree above ; as if 

 they were apprehensive of injury from moisture by any perforation. 



Their scouts must apparently have some means of communicating 

 information of their success, without which it cannot be supposed 

 that others would accidentally meet at a mile distance from their 



