U2 
SWARMS. 
as might be expected, more apt to do so, if the hive 
contains comb or honey, the smell of which will 
have its effect in enticing them. But we have had 
many instances of their fixing on empty hives quite 
new, and which had never been used. At the same 
time, we do not mean to say that the bees literally 
send or commission some of their number on the 
duty of selecting a retreat ,v but we think, that, im- 
pelled by instinct, numbers do go on this errand; 
that each succeeding day they are joined in their 
search by others of the community ; that thus a 
great proportion of the population may have visited 
the spot selected ; and that, therefore, when the 
emigration takes place, a large body of the bees 
natural]}’ betakes itself to the place pitched on, and 
is followed by the general swarm with the queen. 
We would not go so far as to maintain, as some 
have done, that in all cases the bees have previously 
chosen their intended retreat, and that the shrub or 
bush on which they first alight, is only meant to 
serve as a rallying point previously to their final 
flight. Were this always the case, it is not likely 
they would submit so readily to be intercepted by 
the bee-master, and remain contentedly, as in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred they do, in the hive in 
which he has placed them. The truth is, perhaps, 
that the waiters on bees, like writers on many other 
subjects, especially of Natural History, are fond of 
classing the acts and proceedings of their favourites 
under certain fixed and uniform rules, from which 
they are supposed never to deviate. Whereas daily ex- 
