186 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



angles with its course a few hundred yards, and letting 

 a second fly, observes its course by his pocket-compass, 

 and the point where the two courses intersect is that 

 where the nest is situated a . 



The natural station of bees is in the cavities of de- 

 cayed trees ; such trees, Mr. Knight tells us, they will 

 discover in the closest recesses, and at an extraordinary 

 distance from the hive ; in one instance it was a mile : 

 and at swarming, they sometimes are inclined to settle 

 in such cavities. After the discovery of one, from twenty 

 to fifty, who are a kind of scouts, may be found examin- 

 ing and keeping possession of it. They seem to explore 

 every part of it and of the tree with the greatest atten- 

 tion, even surveying the dead knots and the like b . When 

 a hive stands unemployed, a swarm will also sometimes 

 send scouts to take possession of it. 



How long our little active creatures repose before 

 they take a second excursion I cannot precisely say. 

 In a hive the greatest part of the inhabitants generally 

 appear in repose, lying together, says Reaumur, but 

 this probably for a short time. Huber tells us, that bees 

 may always be observed in a hive with the head and 

 thorax inserted into cells that contain eggs, and some- 

 times into empty ones : and that they remain in this 

 situation fifteen or twenty minutes so motionless, that did 

 not the dilatation of the. segments of the abdomen prove 

 the contrary, they might be mistaken for dead. He 

 supposes their object is repose from their labours c . The 



a xxxi. 148. 



b Knight in Philos. Trans, for 1807, 237. Marshall, Agricult. of 

 Norfolk. 



c It has been supposed, and the supposition was adopted origi- 

 nally in this work (VoL. 1. 1st Ed. p. 371), that the object in this case 



