The Life of the Bee 



tacle that they present. We may regard 

 it as probable, therefore, that most careful 

 attention is given to the reports of the 

 various scouts. One of them it may be, 

 dwells on the advantage of some hollow 

 tree it has seen ; another is in favour of a 

 crevice in a ruinous wall, of a cavity m a 

 grotto, or an abandoned burrow. The 

 assembly often will pause and deliberate 

 until the following morning. Then at 

 last the choice is made, and approved by 

 all. At a given moment the entire mass 

 stirs, disunites, sets in motion, and then, 

 in one sustained and impetuous flight, 

 that this time knows no obstacle, it will 

 steer its straight course, over hedges and 

 cornfields, over haystack and lake, over 

 river and village, to its determined and 

 always distant goal. It is rarely indeed 

 that this second stage can be followed by 

 man. The swarm returns to nature ; and 

 we lose the track of its destiny. 



128 



