76 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. I. 



" Mounts the glad chief! and, to the cheated eye, 

 Ten thorfsandjshuttles dart along the sky, 

 As swift through ether rise the rushing swarms, 

 Gay dancing to the beam their sun-bright forms, 

 And each thin form, still lingering on the sight, 

 Trails, as it shoots, a line of silver light. 

 ****** 



High poised on buoyant wing, the thoughtful queen 

 In gaze attentive views the varied scene. 

 And soon her far-stretched ken discerns below 

 The light laburnum lift her polished brow, 

 Wave her green leafy ringlets o'er the glade, 

 And seem to beckon to her friendly shade. 

 Swift as the falcon's sweep, the monarch bends 

 Her flight abrupt : the following host descends ; 

 Round the fine twig, like clustered grapes, they close 

 In thickening wreaths, and court a short repose." 



As it often happens with after-swarms that more than 

 one young queen is hatched before the start is made, 

 the presence of these may cause irregular and puzzUng 

 behaviour in 'the bees. Langstroth mentions a case in 

 which no less than eight queens must have started thus 

 together, and Von Berlepsch once met with the same 

 number ; while Spitzner found a swarm with so many as 

 twenty-one, but this happened fourteen days after the 

 return to the hive of the first swarm, which had lost its 

 queen. As mentioned in the section on " The Queen," 

 it is not altogether a rare occurrence, though certainly 

 the exception, for more than one monarch to settle down 

 together. In one American case no fewer than five 

 colonies once took up their quarters in a single large 



