288 itfs&CT MISCELLANIES. 



seem to proceed from a single bee, but they cannot 

 always be distinguished unless the ear be placed 

 near the mouth of the hive. John Hunter compared 

 the sound to the lower A in the treble of the piano- 

 forte, and others think it resembles the stridulous 

 toot, toot, of a child's penny trumpet. It has been 

 supposed by Wildman that this sound proceeds from 

 the contest of the rival queens about sallying forth, 

 but the facts above given show this to be an unfounded 

 conjecture; and with still less truth Butler sup- 

 poses it to be a parley between the young and the 

 old queen the former at the bottom of the hive re- 

 questing leave to emigrate, and the latter answering in 

 her bass note from the top *. Others gravely construe 

 the sound into a harangue of the queen to animate 

 her subjects to the meditated undertaking of founding 

 a new empire. 



On the other hand, there is also for the most part 

 unusual silence in the hive, that is, little of the ordi- 

 nary hum ; the intended emigrants being, it is sup- 

 posed, busily engaged in eating a hearty meal, and 

 laying in a cargo of honey as a provision for bad 

 weather previous to their departure. In proof of 

 this, John Hunter, upon opening the crops of the 

 emigrants, found them full of honey, whereas he 

 found but a small portion in the crops of those which 

 remained. Perhaps it may be this circumstance 

 which produces their obvious neglect of collecting, as 

 well as of other labour, some days previous to emigra- 

 tion. One of the most indubitable signs of swarming, 

 according to Reaumur, is when particularly on a 

 sunny morning, the weather being favourable to their 

 labours few bees go out of a hive, from which on the 

 preceding day they had issued in great numbers. 

 He is of opinion that this proves all, or almost all 

 * Monarchia Femina, 1634, 



