SOS Ofiffte (Economy of Bees. 



iecls. : They convey to other animals of their species, on 

 the approach of an enemy, a sentiment of danger^ but they 

 appear wholly incapable of comniunicaling what the enemy 

 is, or the kind of danger apprehended. A language of mora 

 extensive use seems, from the preceding circumstances, to 

 have been given to bees; and if it be not, in some degree, 

 ^ language of ideas, it appears to be something very similar. 

 When a swarm of bees issue from the parent hive, they 

 generally soon settle on some neighbouring bush or tree j 

 and as iu this sjtuation they are generjiilly not at ail defended 

 from rain or cold, it is often inferred that they are less amply 

 gifted with those instinctive powers that direct to self-pre- 

 servation than many other animals. But their object in set- 

 tling soon after they leave the hive, is apparently nothing 

 more than to collect their numbers ; and they have gene- 

 rally, I believe always, another place to which they intend 

 subsequently to go ; and if the situation they select be not 

 perfectly adapted to secure them from injuries, it is probably, 

 in almost all instances, the best they can discover. For I 

 have very often observed that when one af my hives was 

 nearly ready to swarm, one of the hollow trees I have men- 

 tioned (and generally that best adapted for the accommoda- 

 tion of a swarm) was every day occupied by a small number 

 of bees, but that after the swarm had issued from that hive, 

 and had taken possession of another, the tree was wholly 

 deserted ; whence I inferred that the swarm, which wonld 

 have taken possession of the cavity of that tree, had relin- 

 quished their intended migration when a hive was offered 

 them at home. And I am much disposed to doubt whether 

 it be not rather habit, produced by domestication, during 

 many successive generations, than any thing inherent in the 

 nature of bees, which induces them to accept a hive, when 

 offered them, in preference to the situation they have pre- 

 viously chosen : for I have noticed the disposition to mi- 

 grate to exist in a much greater degree in some families of 

 bees than in others ; and the offspring of domesticated ani- 

 mals inherit, in a very remarkable manner, the acquired ha- 

 bits of their parents. In all animals this is observable; but 

 in the dog it exists to a wonderful extent, and the offspring 



appears, 



