HIVING OF SWARMS. 139 



danger or difficulty. A remarkable instance of 

 their inoffensiveness at this time is related by MR. 

 THORLEY. Wanting to dislodge a swarm from 

 the branches of a codlin-tree, he placed the hive 

 in the hands of his maid-servant, who being a 

 novice, covered her head and shoulders with a 

 cloth, to guard her face; on shaking the tree, 

 most of the bees alighted upon the cloth, and 

 quickly crept under it, covering the girl's breast 

 and neck up to her very chin. Mr. T. impressed 

 her with the importance of neither flinching from 

 nor buffeting the bees, and began immediately to 

 search for the queen ; which on finding, he gently 

 seized and removed, but without effecting a dis- 

 lodgement of the swarm : thus disappointed, he 

 suspected that there was a second queen ; which 

 actually proved to be the case : on securing, and 

 placing her also in the hive, with a portion of the 

 bees, the rest followed in multitudes, till in two 

 or three minutes not one bee remained upon the 

 girl, who was thus released from her state of ap- 

 prehension and alarm, without feeling the point 

 of a single sting. All persons similarly situated 

 may not be so fortunate, as, notwithstanding the 

 greatest precaution, bees may be provoked to 

 draw their swords. DR. EVANS relates a case of 

 this kind ; a swarm having settled on the branch 

 of a larch- tree, and its long tufts of narrow leaves 

 flapping the bees as the bough was shaken, the 



