HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 443 



which the quantity of that which transpires is so incon- 

 siderable, that it cannot be restored by aliment without 

 their lives being endangered. In winter, while it freezes, 

 one may observe without fear the interior 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 ^" In another place, speaking of the custom 

 in some countries of putting bee-hives during winter into 

 out-houses and cellars, he says that in such situations the 

 air, though more temperate than out of doors dui'ing the 

 greater part of winter, " is yet sufficiently cold to keep 

 the bees in that species of torpidity which does away 

 their need of eating ^." And lastly, he expressly says 

 that the milder the weather, the more risk there is of the 

 bees consuming their honey before the spring, and dying 

 of hunger ; and confirms his assertion by an account of 

 a striking experiment, in which a hive that he transferred 

 during winter into his study, where the temperature was 

 usually in the day 10" or 12° R. above freezing (59° F.), 

 though provided with a plentiful supply of honey, that 

 if they had been in a garden would have served them 

 past the end of April, had consumed nearly their whole 

 stock before the end of February *=. 



Now, how are we to reconcile tliis contradiction ? — 

 for, if Huber be correct in asserting that in frosty weather 

 bees agitate themselves to keep off the cold, and venti- 

 late their hive ; — if, as both he and Swammerdam state, 

 they feed their young brood in the depth of winter — 

 it seems impossible to admit that they ever can be in 

 ' Ilcaum. V. 6G7. " Ibid. GS2. " Ibid. G68. 



