EXPERIMENTS ON EYES OF A BEE. 353 



see not only before and behind, but upward into 

 the sky, and downward into the clear cool waters 

 on whose surface its happy life is spent. Some 

 insects, like Cyclops of old, are furnished only 

 with one eye; and some, it is said, are quite blind 

 creatures that never feel the blessed influences 

 of the pleasant sunlight. Like the simple eyes, 

 the compound eyes are sometimes fixed on the end 

 of a little footstalk, so as to give the insect some- 

 what the appearance of being furnished with a 

 pair of opera glasses, or short telescopes. 



In order to ascertain by what means the bee 

 found its way to the hive, whether by seeing it 

 through its compound eyes, or otherwise, Reaumur 

 performed an interesting experiment similar in 

 character to the one before mentioned. He 

 covered with a red varnish, which was quite 

 opaque, the compound eyes of a number of bees 

 taken from the same hive. He then shut them up 

 in a box with several other bees from the same 

 hive which he left untouched. The box was only 

 a few paces distant from the hive from which the 

 bees were taken. He then opened the lid of the box, 

 and those which had not been blinded instantly 

 flew out of it, and entered their habitation. Those 

 A A 



