238 Mr. Knight on the Economy of Bees. 
between the one point and the other; which seems to indicate 
that those bees which had formely acted as purveyors, now 
became guides. 
Two instances came under my own observation in which a 
swarm was received into a cavity, of which another swarm 
had previous possession. In the first instance I arrived with 
the swarm, and I could not discover that the least opposition 
was made to their entrance : in the second instance, observing 
the direction that the swarm took, I used all the expedition I 
could to arrive first at the tree, to which I supposed they were 
going, whilst a servant followed them ; and a descent of ground 
being in my favour, and the wind against them, I succeeded 
in arriving at the tree some seconds before them ; and I am 
perfectly confident that not the least resistance was opposed 
to their entrance. 
Now it does not appear probable that animals so much at- 
tached to their property as bees are, so jealous of all approach 
towards it, and so ready to sacrifice their lives in defence of 
it, should suffer a colony of strangers, with whose intentions 
they were unacquainted, to take possession, without making 
some effort to defend it : nor does it seem much more pro- 
bable that the same animals, which spent so much time in ex- 
amining their future habitation, in the cases I have mentioned, 
should have attempted in this case to enter without knowing 
whether there was space sufficient to contain them, and with- 
out any examination at all. I must therefore infer, that some 
previous intercourse had taken place between the two swarms, 
and that those in the possession of the cavities were not unac- 
quainted with the intentions of their guests ; though the for- 
mation of any thing like an agreement between the different 
