108 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



be taken into account — e.g., when a swarm is about to 

 be transferred to its permanent abode from its tem- 

 porary one, many will stick to the sides of the latter, 

 after the bulk have been thrown out, and these, by their 

 buzz, will distract those that are running in at the new 

 hive door. The removal of the stragglers to a distance 

 will end the disturbance, which will be renewed if 

 they be returned to their former position. Some 

 years since I was present in a tent where an expert 

 had driven {see "Driving") five or six stocks, and 

 nearly a pint of lost bees had collected for mutual 

 comfort on a piece of damp canvas, at the bottom of 

 the tent pole, against which the last skep was made 

 to lean, as it was stood, quite late in the evening, on 

 a table for operation. No sooner did the bees in this 

 skep set up the well-known roar, than those on the 

 canvas, so still hitherto, faced upwards, unhesitatingly 

 ascending the pole, and settling on the outside of the 

 roof of the receiving skep. This circumstance I 

 remember as affording, to all who witnessed it, con- 

 clusive evidence of hearingf. 



o 



In the progress of the present we moderns have, 

 perhaps, too confidently condemned all the past. 

 The conflict of the key and warming-pan of old 

 swarming days has called forth some good-humoured, 

 but possibly not always philosophical, banter, for I 

 confess I think, that in its day, it had its value. 

 Piping of queens, whatever be its cause, seems to 

 point to a sense of hearing, for it appears to be a 

 sound made for an object, and not the result of some 

 necessary movement. Whether the organs we have just 

 considered be those of hearing or not, the possession 



