IIYMENOPTEBA. 335 



In a hive which is going to " cast," as it is called in technical 

 phraseology, there is often heard in the evening, and even during 

 the night, a peculiar humming. All seems to be in agitation. 

 Sometimes, to hear the noise, it will be necessary to bring your ear 

 close to the hive ; you then will hear nothing but clear and sharp 

 sounds, which seem to be produced by the flapping of the wings of 

 one single bee. " Those who know better than I do the language 

 of bees," says Reaumur, "have told marvels of these sounds. 

 They pretend that it is the new queen that makes this noise, 

 that she is perhaps haranguing the troops she wishes to go with 

 her, or that with a kind of trumpet she animates them to under- 

 take the great adventure. Charles Butler, the author of ' Female 

 Monarchy,' attributes to this noise quite another signification. He 

 says that it seems as if the bee which aspires to become queen 

 supplicates the queen- mother by lamentations and groans to grant 

 it permission to lead a colony out from the hive ; that the queen 

 does not yield sometimes to these touching prayers for two days ; 

 that when she does acquiesce, she answers the suppliant in a fuller 

 and stronger voice ; and that when you have heard the mother-bee 

 grant this permission, you may hope next day to have a swarm. . . 

 Butler has determined all the modulations of the chant of 

 the suppliant bee, the different keys to which they are set, as also 

 those of the chants of the queen-mother. He pretends that it 

 is not allowed to those who wish to raise themselves to a superior 

 rank to imitate the chants of the sovereign ; woe betide the young 

 female if she should dare to do so, it would only be in a spirit 

 of revolt ; and she would be immediately punished by the loss 

 of her head. The old-established queen does more than that : at 

 the same moment she condemns to death those bees which had 

 been seduced."* The true cause of this unusual noise is the 

 agitation of the wings of a great number of the bees in the 

 middle of the hive. 



It has been remarked that when about to swarm, the bees seem 

 as if mad. They lose their senses, the queen setting them the 

 example. Francis Huber has made the most curious remarks 

 on this subject. Here is, according to this immortal observer, 

 what goes on in the hive when an emigration is about to take 

 * "Memoires pour servir a 1'Histoire des Insectes," tome v., pp. 616, 617. 



