THE MAGIC CITY 109 



frantically falling over each other in their 

 great haste. Hundreds of them came, then 

 hundreds more, until the air was full of bees, 

 and so loud was their song when all joined 

 together that they fairly seemed to roar. For 

 a time they danced about in the warm sun- 

 shine, flying in circles, then they began to 

 alight on a branch of a nearby apple tree. 

 When the swarm had clustered quietly, the 

 Naturalist brought a hive and placed it be- 

 neath them and shook them carefully down in 

 front of the entrance. A few going in set up 

 a joyful humming, and soon they were all 

 moving rapidly in the direction of the call and 

 repeating the same joyful sound. Thousands 

 of them were soon within the hive, but many 

 clustered on the outside and some were flying 

 about in the air. It was several hours before 

 they were settled down to work again and their 

 holiday was over. 



H On the porch of his study the Naturalist 

 kept a small observation hive with glass sides 

 and wooden shutters. At any time he could 

 remove the shutter and watch the bees through 

 the glass without disturbing them in the least. 

 They went back and forth to the fields with- 

 out taking any apparent notice of his presence. 



