100 BEES SWARMING. 



In consequence of the departure of their reigning monarch 

 and queen mother, our amazonian citizens are, for the present, 

 queenless. What a predicament for a people whose very 

 spring of action is set in motion, as we have seen, by loyalty ; 

 but it is an exigence to meet which they are well provided. 

 Among the common six-sided cells which compose the mass of 

 building are perceived some half-dozen oval structures, of 

 more than thrice their size, which are occupied as abodes of 

 growing royalty; and within these waxen palaces have been 

 for some weeks nurtured, in different stages of progression 

 towards maturity, as many young princesses, for one of which 

 the vacant throne is destined. For which of them ? is the 

 question which priority of birth and emergement from one of 

 the cells of state is now to settle; for, at present, all these 

 quiescent candidates for sovereignty are swathed in the silken 

 shrouds of their second or chrysalis stage of being, that 

 wherein Bees are designated by the name of Nymphs. With 

 heads turned towards the royal apartments, the queenless sub- 

 jects anxiously await the moment which is to supply their 

 craving for a sovereign. They wait long, but at length (most 

 welcome spectacle !) a royal lady, perfect in the maturity of 

 her full proportions, issues from one of the royal chambers. 

 A loud and joyful hum proclaims her queen, and her subjects 

 are crowding round to pay their ready homage when, lo ! 

 from another of the state apartments, arrived, like herself, at 

 Bee's and queen's estate, and nearly at the self-same moment, 

 comes forth a second claimant to the regal honours. The 

 rivals catch a glimpse of each other, exchange a glance of 

 angry defiance, then, while the crowd falls back to permit 

 their meeting, rush like she-dragons on one another. Head 

 to head, chest to chest, they strive and grapple, and each has 

 only (in dragon sort) to bend her tail, and fix her venomed 

 dart, and both will fall victims to each other's stings. But, 

 no ! at this moment, as if seized simultaneously with panic fear, 

 they part and recede from the deadly and too equal strife. 



