188 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF liNSECTJ. 



inseetg, if they liked, to get at it. In less than a quar- 

 ter of an hour four bees, a butterHy, and some house" 

 flies had discovered it. At another time he pot some 

 into boxes, with little apertures in the lid, into whicli 

 pieces of card were fitted, which he placed about t\\i> 

 hundred paces from his hives. In about half an hour 

 the bees discovered them, and traversing them very in- 

 dustriously, soon found the apertures, Avhen, pushing 

 in the pieces of card, they got to the honey. That 

 contained in the blossom of many plants is quite as 

 much concealed, yet the acuteness of their scent en- 

 ables them to detect it. 



These insects, especially when laden and returning 

 to their nest, fly in a direct line, which saves both time 

 and labour. How they are enabled to do this with 

 such certainty as to make for their own abode without 

 deviation, I must leave to othei^ to explain. Con- 

 nected with this circumstance, and the acuteness of 

 their smell, is the following curious account, given in 

 the Philosophical Transactions ^or 1721, of the method 

 practised in New England for discovering where the 

 w ild hive-bees live in the woods, in order to get theiv 

 honey. The honey-hunters set a plate containing ho- 

 ney or sugar upon the ground in a clear day. The 

 bees soon discover and attack it : having secured two 

 or three that have filled themselves, the hunter lets one 

 go, which, rising into the air, flies straight to the nest; 

 he then strikes off at right angles with its course a few 

 hundred yards, and letting a second fly, observes its 

 course by his pocket-compass, and the point where the 

 two courses intersect is that where the nest is situated'*. 



» xxxi. 148. 



