SIGHT OF INSECTS. 193 



they may possess, besides, other resembling gifts, of which we 

 can form no precise notion, has been not improbably conjec- 

 tured, though doubt still attaches to the seat of some of 

 the organs by which they are exercised. This is by no means 

 the case, however, with the instruments of sight, which in 

 most insects are sufficiently obvious. A child can point to the 

 eyes of a Fly or Bee as readily as to those of an ox ; and though 

 the child judges only by analogy of position and of form, 

 dissection and experiment have alike induced the natural 

 philosopher to assign the name and office of eyes to those large, 

 brown, reticulated bodies, which in the said My or Drone-bee 

 are seen occupying the greater portion of the head. Besides 

 these, the same insects, and most others, are provided with 

 three smaller eyes, termed ocelli, which resemble shining 

 points, and which are usually placed in the form of a triangle, 

 above and between the larger pair. 



We find, therefore, that both as respects the size and number 

 of their visual organs, Insects have greatly the advantage over 

 all other animals at present known, amongst which there is 

 not one which can boast of five, much less of eight eyes, or of 

 twenty, the complement bestowed upon the Spider and the 

 Centipede. 



We are by no means, however, to set it down for granted 

 on this account, that every insect is a little eagle or Argus in 

 power and cjuickness of vision ; for their many eyes would 

 sometimes seem to serve them like the hare's " many friends/' 



