$3® Mr. Knight on the Economy of Bees. 
fought most desperately on the fifth day; and then, as in the 
last mentioned case, all further visiting ceased. 
i have some reason to believe that the kind of intercourse I 
have described, which I have often seen, and which is by no 
means uncommon, not unfrequently ends in a junction of the 
two swarms ; for one instance came under my observation, 
many years ago, in which the labouring bees, under circum- 
stances perfectly similar to those I have described, wholly disap- 
peared, leaving the drones in peaceable possession of the hive, 
but without any thing to live upon. I have also reasons for believ- 
ing, that whenever a junction of two swarms, with their pro- 
perty, is agreed upon, that which proposes to remove, imme- 
diately, or soon afterwards, unites with the other swarm, and 
returns to the deserted hive during the day only to carry off 
the honey: for having examined at night a hive from which I 
suspected the bees to be migrating, I found it without a 
a single inhabitant. I was led to make the examination by 
information I had received from a very accurate observer, 
that all the bees would then be absent. A very considerable 
quantity of honey was in this instance left in the hive without 
any guards to defend it ; but I conclude that the bees would 
have returned for it, had it remained till the next day. When- 
ever the bees quit their habitation, in this way, I have always 
observed some fighting to take place ; but I conceived it to 
be between the bees of the adjoining hives, and those which 
were removing ; the former being attracted by the scent of 
the honey, which the latter were carrying off. 
On the farm which I occupy, there were formerly many old 
decayed trees, the cavities of which were frequently occupied 
