PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 389 



plore every part of it and of the tree with the greatest attention, even sur- 

 veying the dead knots and the like.^ When a hive stands unemployed, a 

 svvann will also sometimes send scouts to take possession of it. 



How long our little active creatures repose before they take a second ex- 

 cursion I cannot precisely say. In a hive the greatest part of the inhabi- 

 tants generally appear in repose, lying together, says Reaumur, but this 

 probably for a short time. Huber tells us, that bees may always be ob- 

 served in a hive with the head and thorax inserted into cells that contain 

 eggs, and sometimes into empty ones ; and that they remain in this situa- 

 tion fifteen or twenty minutes, so motionless that, did not the dilatation of 

 the segments of the abdomen prove the contrary, they might be mistaken 

 for dead. He supposes their object is to repose from their labours.^ 

 The queen, for this purpose, enters the large cells of the males, and con- 

 tinues in them without motion a very long time. Even then the workers 

 form a circle round her, and brush the uncovered part of her abdomen. 

 The drones, while reposing, do not enter the cells, but cluster in the combs, 

 and sometimes remain without stirring a limb for eighteen or twenty 

 hours.* 



Reaumur observes, that in a hive the population of which amounts to 

 18,000, the number that enters the hive in a minute is a hundred; which, al- 

 lowing fourteen hours in the day for their labour, makes 84,000 : thus every 

 individual must make four excursions daily, ami some five. In hives where 

 the population was smaller, the numbers that entered were comparatively 

 greater, so as to give six excursions or more to each bee.* But in this 

 calculation Reaumur does not seem to take into the account those that 

 are employed within the hive in building or feeding the young brood, which 

 must render the excursions of each bee still more numerous. He proceeds 

 further to ground upon this statement a calculation of the quantity of bee- 

 bread that may be collected in one day by such a hive ; and he found, sup- 

 posing only half the number to collect it, that it would amount to more 

 than a pound ; so that in one season one such a hive might collect a 

 hundred pounds.^ What a wonderful idea does this give of the industry 

 and activity of these little useful creatures ! And what a lesson do they 

 read to the members of societies that have both reason and religion to 

 guide their exertions for the connnon good I Adorable is that Great Being 

 who has gifted them with instincts which render them as instructive to us, 

 if we will condescend to listen to them, as they are profitable. 



While I am upon this part of the story of bees, I cannot pass over the 



1 Knight in Philos. Trans, for 1807, 237. Marshall, Agricult. of Norfolk. 



2 It has been supposed, aud the supposition was adopted originally in this work 

 (Vol. I. ]st ed. p. 371.), that the object in this case is brooding the eggs; but upon 

 further consideration we incline to Huber's opinion, that it has no connection with 

 it, the ordinary temperature of the hive being sufficient for this purpose ; and the 

 circumstance of their entering unoccupied cells proves that this attitude has no 

 particular connection with the eggs. {Huber, i. 212.) " When large pieces of comb," 

 says Wildnian (p. 45.), "were broken off and left at the bottom of the hive, a 

 great number of bees have gone and placed themselves upon them." This looks 

 like incubation. Reaumur, however, affirms (p. 591.) that if part of a comb falls 

 and loses its i)erpendicular direction, the bees, as if conscious that they would come 

 to nothing, pull out and destroy all the larviij. They might perhaps remain per- 

 pendicular in the case observed bv Wilduian. 



3 Reaum. v. 431. Huber, ii. 2i2. 4 Reaum. v. 432. 

 6 Ibid. V. 434. 



CC 3 



