Clifton College Scientific Society. 63 



that the noise produced by pokers and tongs, drums and 

 kettles, causes them to settle. Virgil makes mention of this 

 in the lines — 



Tinnitusqiie cie, et Matris quate cymbala circum : 



Ipsse consident medicatis sedibus, ipsee 



Intima more suo scse in cunabula condent. — Georg. IV. 65. 



It has been ascertained, however, that bees are insensible to 

 such sounds as a clap of thunder or report of a gun. The 

 structure of a bee includes many interesting parts. The 

 trunk, or j)roboscis, which is formed by a prolongation of the 

 lower lip, or labium, serves the purpose of a tongue, and is 

 used for the absorption of liquids. It is protected by a 

 double sheath and is solid throughout; though some api- 

 arians maintain that it is tubular. The muscles are admi- 

 ra.bly adapted for the extraction of nectar from flowers. 

 When the bee settles upon a flower, it thrusts its tongue 

 among the petals and stamina, and after sweeping it about 

 through every nook and corner, it withdraws it covered with 

 the precious liquid, which it passes through the pharynx into 

 the oesophagus. The bee is furnished with two stomachs, or 

 rather with a honey bag and a stomach. The first is a long 

 narrow membranous tube, into which the honey passes from 

 the cesophagus. It is quite transparent, and when full of 

 honey is almost the size of a small pea. From this, the bee 

 regurgitates the honey to fill the combs, while the portion in- 

 tended to serve as nourishment passes into the second or real 

 stomach. The wuigs of the bee are admirably adapted for 

 rajpid movement through the air. To the edges of the under 

 wings are attached about twenty hooks, which the bee, when 

 flying, hitches on to the edges of the upper pair. The three 

 pairs of legs, with which the bee is furnished, are composed 

 of several joints, and on the lower part of the two under 

 pairs are thick bristly hairs, with which it sweeps off 

 the pollen from the flowers. By means of the combined 

 action of its jaws and feet, it rolls up this pollen into little 

 pellets, which it places in the two cavities with which the 

 hindermost pair of legs is provided. Each foot ends in two 

 hooks, by means of which the bees hang on to each other, or 

 suspend themselves from the top of the hive or side of the 

 comb. In the middle of the foot is the sucker, which enables 

 bees, flies, and other insects of the same order, to walk on 

 surfaces with their body downwards. The mandibles, or 

 upper pair of jaws, are the tools of the bee, with which it 

 divides solid substances, though they are but little employed 

 in eating. The antenuse, we might, analogically, call the 



