The Swarm 
fashion the spectacle that they present. We 
may regard it as probable, therefore, that 
most careful attention is given to the reports 
of the various scouts. One of them, it may 
be, dwells on the advantage of some hollow 
tree it has seen; another is in favour of a 
crevice in a ruinous wall, of a cavity in 
a grotto, or an abandoned burrow. The 
assembly often will pause and deliberate 
until the following morning. Then at last 
the choice is made, and approved by all. 
At a given moment the entire mass stirs, 
disunites, sets in motion, and then, in one 
sustained and impetuous flight that this 
time knows no obstacle, it steers its straight 
course, over hedges and cornfields, over 
haystack and lake, over river and village, 
to its determined and always distant goal. 
It is rarely indeed that this second stage 
can be followed by man. The swarm re- 
turns to nature, and we lose the track of 
its destiny. 
105 
