130 SYMPTOMS PRIOR TO SWARMING. 



very lively agitation, which first affects the queen, 

 and is then communicated to the workers, ex- 

 citing such a tumult among them, that they 

 abandon their labours, and rush in disorder to 

 the outlets. 



If a swarm quit the first place on which it 

 clusters, it hovers in the air for some time, as if 

 undetermined, and then flies off with great ve- 

 locity. 



We hear now and then of a swarm of bees 

 being lost, of its having eluded the vigilance of 

 the proprietor ; I think that its loss is generally 

 attributable to negligence. As a different opinion 

 is prevalent, I shall state a few of the facts upon 

 which that difference is founded. 



HOMER and VIRGIL speak of bees in their wild 

 state as fixing their habitations in the rocks and 

 in hollow trees. 



" As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees, 

 Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees." 



POPE'S HOMER. 



" And oft, ('tis said,) they delve beneath the earth, 

 And nurse in gloomy caves their hidden birth, 

 Amid the crumbling stone's dark concave dwell, 

 Or hang in hollow trees their airy cell.'* 



SOTHEBY'S GEORGICS. 



Many instances are also recorded of domesti- 

 cated bees seeking an asylum in some hollow part 



