320 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



take the honey which he offered her when separated 

 from the swarm*. 



Dr. Evans relates a case in which also the queen's 

 guard, if we may call them so, remained faithful to 

 the death. In a thinly peopled hive he observed a 

 queen lying on some honey-comb apparently dying, 

 and surrounded by six bees with their faces turned 

 towards her, quivering their wings and holding their 

 stings unsheathed and brandished, like a sentinel 

 with his fixed bayonet. He presented these guar- 

 dian bees with honey, but though it was eagerly 

 eaten by the other bees, they seemed so completely 

 absorbed in their care of the queen, that they would 

 not touch a drop. The queen died ; yet on the fol- 

 lowing day he found her body still guarded, and 

 though supplied with honey the bees gradually pined, 

 and in three or four days they were all dead f. 



It was by taking advantage of this attachment 

 that Wildman was wont to perform feats with bees, 

 which astonished all that witnessed them, as Dr. 

 Evans gives it : 



" Such was the spell, which round a Wildman's arm 



Twin'd in dark wreaths the fascinated swarm ; 



Bright o'er his breast the glittering legions led, 



Or with a living garland bound his head. 



His dexterous hand, with firm yet hurtless hold, 



Could seize the chief, known by her scales of gold, 



Prune, 'mid the wandering throng, her filmy wing, 



Or o'er her folds the silken fetter fling." 



The Bees. 



" Long experience has taught me," says Wildman 

 himself, " that as soon as I turn up a hive, and give 

 some taps on the sides and bottom, the queen im- 

 mediately appears. Being accustomed to see her, I 



* Wardei's True Amazons, or Monarchy of the Bees. 

 t The Bees, a Poern ; notes. 



