174 



THE HONEY-BEE. 



her loyal subjects assemble around her, and form a 

 living cluster. Quickly, from all sides, they continue 

 to gather, and in a quarter of an hour or twenty 

 minutes a dense mass will be hanging one to the 

 other, till it seems wonderful the queen and those in 

 the interior of the living ball are not suffocated. 



Fig. 6i.— "Tanging." 



In country places it is still the custom to beat 

 warming-pans, tin kettles, frying-pans, or other 

 unmusical vessels, with keys or sticks or hammers, 

 while the bees are swarming, under the idea that the 

 noise makes them settle the more quickly. That any 



