166 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
themselves ; and, when they are hived, this unfortunate 
candidate for empire falls sooner or later a victim to the 
jealousy of her rival. Till this great question is decided, 
the bees do not settle to their usual labours?. If no 
queen goes out with a swarm, they return to the hive 
from whence they came. 
As in regular monarchies, so in this of the bees, the 
first-born is probably the fortunate candidate for the 
throne. She is usually the most active and vigorous ; 
the most able to take flight; and in the best condition 
to lay eggs. hough the queen that is victorious, and 
mounts the throne, is not, as Virgil asserts, resplendent 
with gold and purple, and her rival hideous, slothful 
and unwieldy, yet some differences are observable; the 
successful candidate is usually redder and larger than 
the others ; these last, upon dissection, appear to have 
no eggs ready for laying, while the former, which is a 
powerful recommendation, is usually full of them. Eggs 
are commonly found in the cells twenty-four hours after 
swarming, or at the latest two or three days. 
You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emi- 
grate from the parent hive are the youth of the colony ; 
but this is not the case, for bees of all ages unite to form 
the swarms. The numbers of which they consist vary 
much. Reaumur calls 12,000 a moderate swarm; and 
2 Reaumur, 615-644, 
» « Alter erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens, 
(Nam duo sunt genera) hic melior, insignis et ore, 
Et rutilis clarus squamis : ille horridus alter 
Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum.” 
Georg. iv. 91— 
