SWARMING AND HIVING. 
117 
alights first, and sometimes joins the cluster after it has 
begun to form. The bees do not usually settle, unless 
she is with them ; and when they do, and then disperse, 
it is frequently the case that, after first rising with them, 
she has fallen, from weakness, into some spot where she is 
unnoticed by the bees. 
Perceiving a hive in the act of swarming, I, on two oc- 
casions, contracted the entrance, to secure the queen when 
she should make her appearance. In each case, at least 
one-third of the bees came out before she joined them. 
As soon as the swarm ceased searching for her, and were 
returning to the parent-hive, being placed, with her 
wings clipped, on a limb of a small evergreen tree, she 
crawled to the very top of the limb, as if for the express 
purpose of making herself as conspicuous as possible. The 
few bees which first noticed her, instead of alighting, 
darted rapidly to their companions ; in a few seconds, the 
whole colony was apprised of her presence, and flying in 
a dense cloud, began quietly to cluster around her. Bees 
when on the wing intercommunicate with such surprising 
rapidity, that telegraphic signals are scarcely more instan- 
taneous. 
That bees send out scouts to seek a suitable abode, 
admits of no serious question. Swarms have been traced 
directly to their new home, in an air-line flight, either 
from their hive, or from the place where they clustered 
after alighting. Now this precision of flight to an un- 
known home, would plainly be impossible, if some of their 
number, by previous explorations, were not competent to 
act as guides to the rest. The sight of bees for distant 
objects is so wonderfully acute, that, after rising to a sufii- 
cient elevation, they can see, at the distance of several 
miles, any prominent objects in the vicinity of their in- 
tended abode. 
