HIVING OF SWARMS. 145 



in a circle round her. Others, in succession, 

 broke through this circle, and having repeated 

 the same process, of touching her with their an- 

 tennae, giving her honey, &c. formed themselves 

 in a circle behind the others, vibrating their wings 

 and keeping up a pleasurable hum. These de- 

 monstrations were continued for a quarter of an 

 hour, when the queen beginning to move towards 

 one part of the circle, an opening was made 

 through which she passed, followed and sur- 

 rounded by her customary guard. Such is the 

 substance of Huber's account : it does not en- 

 tirely correspond with what has been stated by 

 Dunbar. Fide chapter on Bee-boxes. 



The loyal attachment of bees to their queen ex- 

 tends even beyond this : HUBER states that he 

 has seen the workers, " after her death, treat her 

 body as they treated herself when alive, and long 

 prefer this inanimate body to the most fertile 

 queens he had offered them." And DR. EVANS 

 relates a case, in which a queen was observed to 

 lie on some honey-comb in a thinly peopled hive, 

 apparently dying, and surrounded by six bees, 

 with their faces turned towards her, quivering 

 their wings, and most of them with their stings 

 pointed, as if to keep off any assailant. On pre- 

 senting them honey, though it was eagerly de- 

 voured by the other bees, the guards were so 

 completely absorbed in the care of their queen, as 



