late habitation. There they hover for a moment, reeling backwards and forwards, while some of the body search in the vicinity for a tree or bush which may serve as a rallying-point for the emigrants. To this they repair by degrees, and provided their Queen has alighted there, all, or at least the greater part, crowd around, and form a dense group, sometimes rounded like a ball, sometimes clustered like a bunch of grapes, according to the nature of the resting-place they have fixed on. (Plate VII.) The Queen is not always foremost; it is frequently, or rather generally, not till after the departure of a considerable number of workers that she makes her appearance; and when she does come, it is with a timid irresolute air, as if she were borne along, almost against her will, by the torrent that streams out of the hive,—for she often turns on the threshold, as if about to re-enter, and in fact frequently does so, but cannot long resist the opposing crowd.[1]
The first swarm is invariably led off by the old Queen. This has been ascertained by actual observation. The Queen leading off a first swarm in one year, has been marked by depriving her of one of her antennæ, and has been found at the head of a first swarm in the year following. This experiment has been so often repeated, and with results so uniform, as to put the fact beyond all doubt. Besides, in examining those hives in which first swarms have been placed, eggs will be found in the cells on the second
- ↑ Feburier.
