On tJie CEconomij of Bees. 107 



trees : and they were observed to deviate very little from the 

 direct line between the one point and the other; which 

 seems to indicate that those bees which had formerly acted 

 as purveyors, now became guides. 



Two instances came under my own observation, in which 

 a swarm was received into a cavity of which another swarm 

 had previous possession. In the first instance I arrived with 

 the swarm, and I could not discover that the least opposi- 

 tion was made to their entrance : in the second instance, , 

 observing the direction that the swarm took, I used all the 

 expedition I could to arrive first at the tree to which I sup- 

 posed they were going, whilst- a servant followed them ; and 

 a descent of ground being in my favour, and the wind against 

 them, I succeeded in arriving at the tree some seconds be- 

 fore them ; and I am perfectly confident that not the leas; 

 resistance was opposed to their entrance. 



Now it does not appear probable that animals so much 

 attached to their property as bees are, so jealous of all ap- 

 proach towards it, and so ready to sacrifice their lives in 

 defence of it, should suffer a colony of strangers, with whose 

 intentions they were unacquainted, to take possession, with- 

 out making some effort to defend it : nor does it seem much 

 more probable that the same animals, which spent so much 

 time in examining their future habitation, in the cases I have 

 mentioned, should have attempted in this case to enter w ith- 

 out knowing whether there was space sufficient to contain 

 them, and without any examination at all. I must there- 

 fore infer that some previous intercourse had taken place 

 between the two swarms, and that those in the possession 

 of the cavities were not unacquainted with flie intentions of 

 their guests ; though the formation of any thing like an 

 agreement between the different parties be scarcely consistent 

 with the limitations generally supposed to be fixed by nature 

 to the instinctive powers of the brute creation. 



Brutes have evidently language ; but it is a langnarrc of 

 passion only, and not of ideas. They express to each other 

 ?cntimenls of love, of fear, and of anger; but ihey apjicar 

 to be wholly incapable of transmitting to each other any 

 ideas they have received from ihe impression of external oh- 



jeas. 



