66 LETTERS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 
more than fifty years, the experiment never 
failed. Signor Monticelli, a Neapolitan pro- 
fessor, informs us that the Greeks and Turks 
know how to make artificial swarms, and that 
the art of producing queens at will has been 
known, in the little Sicilian island of Favignana, 
from very remote antiquity. I have been so 
particular in giving all this authority, my dear 
Harriet, because people in general are very apt 
to doubt what appears strange, merely because 
they do not comprehend why or how it is, for- 
getting that they are neither omniscient nor omni- 
present. 
Reaumur says that the best sign that a hive is 
preparing to swarm, is when on a sunny morning 
few bees go out of a hive. A good deal depends 
on the state of the weather, however, to accelerate 
or retard it. Another sign is a general hum in 
the evening, and which continues even in the 
night. The old queen leads the first swarm, and 
the first-born of those left, or the princess royal, if 
we may so call her, probably takes her place. The 
longest interval between the swarms is from 
seven to nine days, and between each successive 
one it is much shortened. 
If one of the antennae of a queen is cut off, it 
seems not to affect her ; but if deprived of both, 
