The explanation
of this singular circumstance no doubt is, that the queen, unused to
such long and heavy flights, was obliged to alight from very
exhaustion. It is not very unusual for swarms to be thus found in
remote fields, collected upon a bush or branch of a tree.
When a swarm migrates to the woods in this manner, the individual bees,
as I have intimated, do not move in right lines or straight forward,
like a flock of birds, but round and round, like chaff in a whirlwind.
Unitedly they form a humming, revolving, nebulous mass, ten or fifteen
feet across, which keeps just high enough to clear all obstacles,
except in crossing deep valleys, when, of course, it may be very high.
The swarm seems to be guided by a line of couriers, which may be seen
(at least at the outset) constantly going and coming. As they take a
direct course, there is always some chance of following them to the
tree, unless they go a long distance, and some obstruction, like a
wood, or a swamp, or a high hill, intervenes--enough chance, at any
rate, to stimulate the lookers-on to give vigorous chase as long as
their wind holds out.
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