Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/211

Rh time, and as I did not observe that she came out, I conceived an expectation of seeing the whole body quickly abandon their settlement; but instead of that, I soon observed them gathering closer together, without the least signal for departing. Upon this, I immediately reflected that either there must be another sovereign, or that the same was returned, I directly commenced a second search, and in a short time, with a most agreeable surprise, found a second, or the same. She strove, by entering farther into the crowd, to escape me; but I re-conducted her, with a great number of the populace, into the hive. And now the melancholy scene began to change to one infinitely more agreeable and pleasant. The bees, missing their Queen, began to dislodge and repair to the hive, crowding into it in multitudes, and in the greatest hurry imaginable; and in the space of two or three minutes, the maid had not a single bee about her, neither had she so much as one sting—a small number of which would have quickly stopped her breath."

The following table of the average number, measure, and weight of Bees, is taken from Key's Treatise—