PERFECT SOCIETIES Ol INSECTS. 199 



experiments, which are too long to relate, prove the im- 

 portance of these organs as the instrument of communi- 

 cating with each other, as well as to direct the bee in all 

 its proceedings '. Besides their antennae, the bees also 

 cause themselves to be understood by certain sounds, 

 not indeed produced by the mouth, but by other parts 

 of their body: — but upon this subject I shall have occa- 

 sion to enlarge hereafter. 



That bees can remember agreeable sensations at least, 

 is evident from the following anecdote related by Hu- 

 ber. — One autumn some honey was placed upon a win- 

 dow — the bees attended it in crowds. The honey was 

 taken away, and the window closed with a shutter all 

 the winter. In the spring, when it was I'e-opened, the 

 bees returned, though no fresh honey had been placed 

 there". 



From the earliest times our little citizens of the hive 

 have had the character of being an irritable race. Their 

 anger is without bounds, says Virgil ; and if they are 

 molested, this character is no exaggei'ation. Some in- 

 dividuals, however, they will suffer to go near their 

 hives, and to do almost any thing : and there are others 

 to whom they seem to take such an antipathy, that they 

 will attack them unprovoked. A great deal will proba- 

 bly depend upon this — whether any thing has happened 

 to put them out of humour. The bees usually do not 

 attack me ; but I remember one day last year, when the 

 asparagus was in blossom, which a large number were 

 attending, I happened to go between my asparagus beds ; 

 which discomposed them so much, that I was obliged to 



" Hubcr, ii. 407— " Ibid. .37o. 



