e population is crowded, but because it is
either so small, or the hive so destitute of supplies, that they are
discouraged or driven to desperation. I once knew a colony to leave the
hive under such circumstances, on a springlike day in December! They
seem to have a presentiment that they must perish if they stay, and
instead of awaiting the sure approach of famine, they sally
out to see if something cannot be done to better their condition.

At first sight, it seems strange that so provident an insect should not
always select a suitable domicile before venturing on so important a
step as to abandon the old home. Often before they are safely housed
again, they are exposed to powerful winds and drenching rains, which
beat down and destroy many of their number.

I solve this problem in the economy of the bee, in the same manner that
I have solved so many others, by considering in what way, this
arrangement conduces to the advantage of man.

The honey-bee would have been of comparatively little service to him, if
instead of tarrying until he had sufficient time to establish them in a
hive in which to labor for him, their instinct impelled them to decamp,
without any delay, from the restraints of domestication. In this, as in
many other things, we see that what on a superficial view, appeared to
be a very obvious imperfection, proves, on closer examination, to be a
special contrivance to answer important ends.

To return to our new swarm. The queen sometimes alights first, and
sometimes joins the cluster after it has commenced forming. It is a very
rare thing for the bees ever to cluster, unless the queen is with them;
and when they do, and yet afterwards disperse, I believe that usually
the queen, after first rising with them, has been lost by falling into
some spot where she is unnoticed by the bees. In two instances, I
performed the following interesting experiment.

Perceiving a hive in the very act of swarming, I contracted the entrance
so as to secure the queen when she made her appearance. In each case, at
least one third of the bees came out, before the queen presented
herself to join them. When I perceived that the swarm had given up their
search for her, and were beginning to return to the parent hive, I
placed her, with her wings clipped, on the limb of a small evergreen
tree: she crawled to the very top of the limb, as if for the purpose of
making herself as conspicuous as possible. A few bees noticed her,