200 BEE'S HOMEWARD FLIGHT. 



unless of subtle accuracy infinitely surpassing those boasted 

 by ourselves, could direct either bee or bird through miles 

 of pathless air to one desired point ; nor, in some cases, as in 

 a bees' first excursion, can memory be the leading principle. 

 What, then, is the little traveller's guide ? "VYho can exactly 

 say ? but we are inclined to look upon it as a faculty by itself 

 an additional sense, or a peculiar instinct call it which we will 

 whereby that Paternal Power, whose care is over all, is 

 pleased to conduct to their haunts of labour and subsistence, 

 and back again to their homes of safety not alone the bee or 

 bird, but a variety of other creatures, who want a tongue to 

 inquire their way. 



Howsoever guided, our bee labourer has arrived at her 

 " waxen city." Its outer rampart of straw conceals her from 

 our view as she disappears within its entrance ; but, thanks to 

 the inventor of glass hives,* and to those who have turned 

 them to good account, we shall be able, through the eyes of 

 others, and through the observations of the eyeless Huber, to 

 give a tolerable guess at the home proceedings of our laden 

 forager and her busv sisterhood. 



D t/ 



Our bee, as before noticed, was the bearer of a double load 

 pollen or dust of anthers in her thigh baskets, nectar in her 

 internal honey-bag ; but neither of these floral treasures have 

 been collected for herself. A working bee is no selfish or 

 single individual she is the devoted subject of an idle monarch; 



* Maraldi, an Italian mathematician, 1712. 



