THE QUEEN-BEE. 7 



duly furnished a glowing- epithalamium for the queen- 

 bee : — thus, 



" When noon-tide Sirius glares on high. 

 Young love ascends the glowing sky, 

 From vein to vein swift shoots prolific fire. 

 And thrills each insect fibre with desire; 

 Then Nature, to fulfil thy prime decree, 

 Wheels round, in wanton rings, the courtier Bee ; 

 Now shyly distant, now with bolder air. 

 He woos and wins the all-complying fair ; 

 Through fields of ether, veiled in vap'ry gloom 

 They seek, with amorous haste, the nuptial room ; 

 As erst the immortal pair, on Ida's height, 

 Wreath'd round their noon of joy ambrosial night." 



The loyalty and attachment of bees to their queen is 

 one of their most remarkable characteristics ; they con- 

 stantly supply her with food, and fawn upon and caress 

 her, softly touching her with their antennae — a favour 

 which she occasionally returns. When she moves about 

 the hive, all the bees through whom she successively 

 passes pay her the same homage; those whom she 

 leaves behind in her track close together, and resume 

 their accustomed occupations. 



The majestic deportment of the queen-bee and the 

 homage paid to her is, with a little poetic licence, thus 

 described by Evans : — 



" But mark, of royal port and awful mien. 



Where moves with measured pace the insect Queen ! 

 Twelve chosen guards, with slow and solemn gait. 

 Bend at her nod, and round her person wait." 



