410 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



breaking up of the first frost, we also observed num- 

 bers of the small black ant [Formica fusca) running 

 about the sunny sides of hedge-banks ; and though 

 we did not trace them to their winter quarters, we 

 think it not improbable, from their very early appear- 

 ance, that they had never been completely torpid.^ 



The bee is popularly believed to hybernate, the 

 seven winter sleepers being said to be, ' the bat, the 

 bee, the butterfly, the cuckoo, and the three swallows;' 

 but, like many of the popular notions on natural his- 

 tory, this is almost wholly erroneous, for at least, out 

 of these seven, the four birds certainly do not become 

 torpid. With respect to the bee, again, we find some 

 of the most distinguished observers at variance. 

 Reaumur is an advocate for the popular opinion. 

 ^ It has been established,' he says, ^ with a wis- 

 dom, which we cannot but admire, — with which 

 everything in nature has been made and ordained, — 

 that during the greater part of the time in which the 

 country furnishes nothing to bees, they have no 

 longer need to eat. The cold which arrests the ve- 

 getation of plants — which deprives our fields and 

 meadows of their flowers — throws the bees into a 

 state in which nourishment ceases to be necessary to 

 them : it keeps them in a sort of torpidity, in which 

 no transpiration from them takes place, or at least 

 during which the quantity of what transpires is so 

 inconsiderable, that it cannot be restored by aliment 

 without their lives being endangered. In winter, 

 while it freezes, we may observe without fear the in- 

 terior of hives that are not of glass ; for we may lay 

 them on their sides, and even turn them bottom 

 upwards, without putting any bee into motion. We 

 see the bees crowded and closely pressed one against 

 the other ; little space then suffices for them.'| — 

 Again, when mentioning the custom of putting bee- 



* J. R. t Mem. v. p. 667. 



