206 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
general actions now and then take place between two 
swarms. This happens when one takes a fancy to a hive 
that another has pre-occupied. In fine warm weather, 
strangers, that wish to be received amongst them, meet 
with but an indifferent welcome, and a bloody battle is 
the consequence. Reaumur witnessed one that lasted a 
whole afternoon, in which many victims fell. In this case 
the battle is still between individuals, who at one time de- 
cide the business within the hive, and at another at some 
’ distance without. In the former case the victorious bee 
flies away, bearing her victim under her body between her 
legs, sometimes taking a longer and sometimes a shorter 
flight before she deposits it upon the ground.—She then 
takes her repose near the dead body, standing upon her 
four anterior legs, and rubbing the two hinder ones against 
each other. If the battle is not concluded within the 
hive, the enemy is carried to a little distance, and then 
dispatched. 
This strange fury however does not always show itself 
on this occasion; for now and then some friendly inter- 
course seems to take place. Bees, from a hive in Mr. 
Knight’s garden, visited those in that of a cottager, a hun- 
dred yards distant, considerably later than their usual 
time of labour, every bee as it arrived appearing to be 
questioned. On the tenth morning, however, the inter- 
course ceased, ending in a furious battle. On another 
occasion, an intimacy took place between two hives of 
his own, at twice the distance, which ceased on the fifth 
day. Sometimes he observed that this communication 
terminated in the union of two swarms; as in one instance, 
where a swarm had taken possession of a hollow tree’, it 
4 Philos. Trans. 1807, 234— 
