ORGANS OF SPEECH. 365 



puts himself in motion. When, also, they have 

 any discovery to communicate, they strike with 

 them those that they meet, in a particularly im- 

 pressive manner ; and if a hungry ant wants to be 

 fed, it touches with its two antenna, moving them 

 very rapidly, those of the individual from which it 

 expects its meaL They appear to salute one another 

 by gently tapping each other's antennae, as we 

 should shake hands on meeting an old friend ! 



M. Huber has related an account of some 

 interesting experiments of his on a hive of bees, 

 which strikingly proves that the antennas are 

 really organs for the transmission of intelligence. 

 He wished to ascertain whether, when they had 

 lost a queen, they discovered the sad event by 

 their smell, their touch, or any unknown cause ; for 

 such a loss, in the course of a single hour, is made 

 known in some way or other to the whole hive. 

 In order to ascertain this, he first divided a hive 

 by a grate which kept the two portions a few 

 parts of an inch separated from each other, so 

 that the bees could not come at each other, 

 although any scent could easily have passed. In 

 that part in which there was no queen, the bees 

 were soon in great agitation ; and as they did not 



