608 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
air at top speed, straight as an arrow’s flight ; with perchance the 
thermometer standing in the vicinity of “zero 2?” ; 
I need not detail how I now closed all these four hives simul- 
taneously on a bee issuing or being let forth, now opened one 
and closed the rest, &c., &c. The result was the same in all cases, 
those bees never returned. I may say that I always chose a day 
for observation that was not “fine” enough to “tempt” bees out, 
but that yet was dry. 
I will end by detailing the different mode in which the bee 
that gets out freely (doors being open) acts, from one that is 
detained inside for some minutes ere it is let forth. The latter, 
on being liberated, behaves like the ones I have mentioned in the 
case of the hives exposed to the light inside the house. Simply 
darting off without one look behind. The former, on the other hana, 
runs down the flight-board, starts quietly off it, gives one turn 
round the front of the hive as if to take a last look, the next 
wheel begins a drawn-out spiral, taking a half turn of which it 
attains a tolerably high elevation over the hive. Simultaneous 
with the commencement of this turn upwards, the bee begins a 
peculiar moaning sort of hum, quite unlike any ordinary sound, 
it increases to a roar, and as the bee, now having attained sufh- 
cient elevation, sails away in a straight, steady, laden-looking 
flight, it can be heard for a considerable distance. 
Over the tree-tops it has vanished. Shut the doors! Does it 
come back? No! It has gone to seek “the happy hunting 
ground.” 
42? 
“Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes ! 
