THE HONEY-BEE. 57 



fellow-insects will not secure him from an immediate 

 attack from all quarters ; he is detected by a more 

 subtle sense than vision, and instant flight alone can 

 save him. Huber, to whose researches we are so 

 nuch indebted in regard to the senses of Bees, has 

 lade some very conclusive experiments on that of 

 inell, all of which we have repeated with precisely 

 the same results. Like his, our first experiment was 

 to ascertain the acuteness of the sense. He con- 

 cealed a vessel with honey behind the shutters of an 

 open window, near the apiary. In our experiment, 

 a small box containing a portion of honey mingled 

 with ale, and covered with a piece of wire-gauze, was 

 placed at a distance of 100 yards from the apiary, 

 close to the bottom of a hedge, where it was by no 

 means conspicuous. In a quarter of an hour, a bee 

 alighted on the box, and in a few minutes more, 

 while this bee was eagerly exploring and striving to 

 gain an entrance, several more joined it. The cover 

 was then raised, and admission given ; and after the 

 first visitors had gone off with a bellyful, the feeders 

 increased in the space of an hour to hundreds. 



To diversify the trial, Huber procured four small 

 ooxes, to the apertures of which, large enough to admit 

 L bee, he fitted shutters or valves, made of card-paper, 

 which it was necessary should be forced open in order 

 o gain admission. Honey being tut into them, they 

 vere placed at the distance of 2QO paces from the 

 piary. In half an hour, bees were seen arriving; care- 

 oily traversing the boxes, they soon discovered the 

 Denings, pressed against the valves, and reached the 



