142 SWARMS. 



as might be expected, more apt to do so, if the hive 

 contains comb or honey, the smell of which will 

 have its effect in enticing them. But we have had 

 many instances of their fixing on empty hives quite 

 new, and which had never been used. At the same 

 time, we do not mean to say that the bees literally 

 send or commission some of their number on the 

 duty of selecting a retreat ; but we think, that, im- 

 pelled by instinct, numbers do go on this errand ; 

 that each succeeding day they are joined in their 

 search by others of the community ; that thus a 

 great proportion of the population may have visited 

 the spot selected ; and that, therefore, when the 

 emigration takes place, a large body of the bees 

 naturally betakes itself to the place pitched on, and 

 is followed by the general swarm with the queen. 

 We would not go so far as to maintain, as some 

 have done, that in all cases the bees have previously 

 chosen their intended retreat, and that the shrub or 

 bush on which they first alight, is only meant to 

 serve as a rallying point previously to their final 

 flight. Were this always the case, it is not likely 

 they would submit so readily to be intercepted by 

 the bee-master, and remain contentedly, as in ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred they do, in the hive in . 

 which he has placed them. The truth is, perhaps, 

 that the writers on bees, like writers on many other 

 subjects, especially of Natural History, are fond of 

 classing the acts and proceedings of their favourites 

 under certain fixed and uniform rules, from which 

 they are supposed never to deviate. Whereas daily ex- 



