BRITISH BUTTERFLIES 



examined by many bees, apparently explorers. Yet 

 how seldom is it chosen and occupied without the guid- 

 ance of the bee master ! Instead of going into this 

 hive, ranged and ready for them, the swarm will settle 

 in a cluster on a tree or bush by the river Lam- 

 bourne, I found and all but trod on a swarm in a faggot 

 and will finally establish themselves, if they are not 

 taken charge of, in the roof of a house or the hollow 

 of a tree. 



But only introduce them to the beehive which in s 

 vain their explorers have examined, and which they 

 themselves have passed a hundred times a day, and 

 they will joyously run up the alighting board, jostle in 

 at the entrance, and then and there take possession 

 of the very spot that they need for founding their 

 State in. 



If their intelligence had anything like affinity to 

 human reasoning power, surely the swarm, on emerging 

 with their queen, would go straight into that empty 

 hive with its hanging row of bar-frames, each support- 

 ing a sheet of wax ready to work out into cells. In- 

 stead, the bees will waste a precious day or more at the 

 height of the honey flow, examining, re-examining, 

 some crevices about a wall or roof, which are not the 

 least good to them. I have seen it mentioned as a 

 sign of the bee's wisdom that the swarm coming forth 

 will often fly several miles away from their old home 



22 



