THE MYSTERY OF THE SWARM 185 



ashamed. If we may conceive the issue of a 

 swarm to be a freak of ancestral memory, the 

 sudden irresistible impulse to follow an old racial 

 habit, long obsolete, it is not difficult to account for 

 the obvious change of mind that has now come 

 over the absconding host. Packed within the hive 

 in a feverish, surging multitude, disabilities were 

 not self-evident as they are now, tried in the light 

 of day. 



" Violent delights have violent ends, 

 And, in their triumph, die." 



And now there is the morrow to be thought of: 

 life to be rendered possible in all odds of weather; 

 a home to , be made ; the queen-mother to be 

 sheltered — she, the one remaining possession of 

 the crowd, beggared now, but so rich a moment 

 before. There is hard work ahead, enough to 

 sober the giddiest among them. The madness 

 has gone as quickly as it came, and now the 

 honey-bee is to show herself a reasoning creature, 

 if never before. 



It is believed by most bee-keepers that a swarm 

 selects the site of its future dwelling some time 

 before the expedition starts, in many cases several 

 days earlier. An old trick among cottagers is to 

 place out empty hives in their gardens, and these 

 not uncommonly attract errant swarms. A few 

 bees are seen cruising about, and subjecting the 

 hives to a close scrutiny. These pioneer bees 



