to apply
its trunk to that of the captive queen, and then gave way to others that
also approached her with honey. When satisfied she retracted her trunk,
and the bees again closed up the opening with wax.

The queen this day between twelve and one became extremely agitated. The
royal cells had multiplied very much; she could go no where without
meeting them, and on approaching she was very roughly treated. Then she
fled, but to obtain no better reception. At last, these things agitated
the bees; they precipitately rushed through the outlets of the hive, and
settled on a tree in the garden. It singularly happened that the queen
was herself unable to follow or conduct the swarm. She had attempted to
pass between two royal cells before they were abandoned by the bees
guarding them, and she was so confined and maltreated as to be incapable
of moving. We then removed her into a separate hive prepared for a
particular experiment; the bees, which had clustered on a branch, soon
discovered their queen was not present, and returned of their own accord
to the hive. Such is an account of the second colony of this hive.

We were extremely solicitous to ascertain what would become of the other
royal cells. Four of the close ones had attained complete maturity, and
the queens would have left them had not the bees prevented it. They were
not open either previous to the agitation of the swarms, or at the
moment of swarming.

None of the queens were at liberty on the eleventh. The second should
have transformed on the eighth; thus she had been three days confined, a
longer period than the first which formed the swarm. We could not
discover what occasioned the difference in their captivity.

On the twelfth, the queen was at last liberated, as we found her in the
hive. She had been treated exactly as her predecessor; the bees allowed
her to rest in quiet, when distant from the royal cells, but tormented
her cruelly when she approached them. We watched this queen a long time,
but not aware that she would lead out a colony, we left the hive for a
few hours. Returning at mid-day, we were greatly surprised to find it
almost totally deserted. During our absence, it had thrown a prodigious
swarm, which still clustered on the branch of a neighbouring tree. We
also saw with astonishment the third cell open, and its top connected to
it as by a hinge. In all probability the captive queen, profiting by the
confusion that preceded the swarming, e