26 THE PASTORAL BEES. 



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 depos- 

 ited 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 lines 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 



