136 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OE INSECTS. 



crowds after her into the air, and the element is filled with 

 bees as thick as the falling snow. The queen at first does 

 not alight upon the branch on which the swarm fixes ; but 

 as soon as a group is formed and clustered, she joins it : after 

 this it thickens more and more, all the bees that are in the 

 air hastening to their companions and their queen, so as to 

 form a living mass of animals supporting themselves upon 

 each by the claws of their feet. Thus they sometimes are so 

 concatenated, each bee suspending its legs to those of another, 

 as to form living chaplets. 1 After this they soon become 

 tranquil, and none are seen in the air. Before they are 

 housed they often begin to construct a little comb on the 

 branch on which they alight. 2 Sometimes it happens that 

 two queens go out with the same swarm ; and the result is, 

 that the swarm at first divides into two bodies, one under each 

 leader ; but as one of these groups is generally much less nu- 

 merous than the other, the smallest at last joins the largest, 

 accompanied by the queen to whom they had attached them- 

 selves ; 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. Though 

 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 3 , yet some differences are 

 observable ; the successful candidate is usually redder and 



i Some critics have found fault with Mr. Southey for ascribing, in his Curse 

 of Kehama, to Camdeo, the Cupid of Indian mythology, a bow strung with bees. 

 The idea is not so absurd as they imagine ; and the poet doubtless was led to it 

 by his knowledge of the natural history of these animals, and that they form 

 themselves into strings or chaplets. — See Reaum. v. t. xxii. f. 3. 



°~ Reaumur, 615—644. 



3 " Alter erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens, 



(Nam duo sunt genera) hie melior, insignis et ore, 

 Et rutilis clarus squamis : ille horridus alter 

 Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvum." 



Georg. iv. 91 — . 



