THE HONEY-BEE. 207 



time, and as I did not observe that she came out, I 

 conceived an expectation of seeing the whole hody 

 quickly abandon their settlement; but instead of 

 tha^ I soon observed them gathering closer together,, 

 without the least signal for departing. Upon this,, I 

 immediately reflected that either there must be an- 

 other sovereign, or that the same was returned, I 

 directly commenced a second search, and in a short 

 time, with a most agreeable surprise, found a second, 

 or the same. She strove, by entering farther into 

 the crowd, to escape me; but I re-conducted her, 

 with a great number of the populace, into the hive. 

 And now the melancholy scene began to change to 

 one infinitely more agreeable and pleasant. The 

 bees, missing their Queen, began to dislodge and re- 

 pair to the hive, crowding into it in multitudes, and 

 in the greatest hurry imaginable ; and in the space 

 of two or three minutes, the maid had not a single 

 bee about her, neither had she so much as one sting 

 a small number of which would have quickly stop- 

 ped her breath." 



The following table of the average number, mea- 

 sure, and weight of Bees, is taken from Key's Trea- 

 tise 



Ibs. oz. dr. 

 23,000 Bees, constituting a good swarm, 



will weigh . . . . 500 



100 Drones weigh . . . . 010 



290 Workers . . . . 010 



4,640 Ditto, 100 



1,830 Ditto a pint in measure, . 065 



3,660 Ditto a quart, . . 12 10 



