Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/145

Rh round the apiary, wheeling about in mazy circles, and in a kind of regular confusion, but dart away in a condensed body, and with a rapid wing, with a shrill whizzing sound, and almost always in a straight line, as if they had some particular selected spot in view. It is supposed, indeed, and on feasible grounds, that in every case the bees, previous to swarming, have fixed on a place of abode; that they alight in the first instance on a bush or tree, merely as a general rendezvous, before proceeding to their final destination; and that some days previously they send out some of their number in the character of scouts to look out for a suitable habitation. Whether this be the fact or not, is a question which has given rise to considerable discussion; and a host of apiarians have taken opposite sides on the subject. The advocates of the scout system are Warder, Butler, Bonner, and Knight among the British writers, several French naturalists, and the author of the letters of an American farmer. On the other side are Reaumur, Buffon, Bonnet, and Huber. Who shall decide when such authorities differ in opinion? As far as our experience goes, it is in favour of the scout system. At the approach of the swarming season, we usually place an empty hive or two in the apiary to be ready for the reception of swarms; and few years—perhaps none—have elapsed in which we have not observed for some days before the swarming commences, a few scores of bees very busy in some one of these empty hives;—a circumstance almost uniformly followed by a swarm taking possession of it. They are,