PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 199 



experiments, which are too long to relate, prove the im- 

 portance of these organs as the instrument of communi- 

 cating with each other, as well as to direct the bee in all 

 its proceedings*. Besides their antennae, the bees also 

 cause themselves to be understood by certain sounds, 

 not indeed produced by the mouth, but by other parts 

 of their body : but upon this subject I shall have occa- 

 sion to enlarge hereafter. 



That bees can remember agreeable sensations at least, 

 is evident from the following anecdote related by Hu- 

 ber. One autumn some honey was placed upon a win- 

 dow the bees attended it in crowds. The honey was 

 taken away, and the window closed with a shutter all 

 the winter. In the spring, when it was re-opened, the 

 bees returned, though no fresh honey had been placed 

 there b . 



From the earliest times our little citizens of the hive 

 have had the character of being an irritable race. Their 

 anger is without bounds, says Virgil ; and if they are 

 molested, this character is no exaggeration. Some in- 

 dividuals, however, they will suffer to go near their 

 hives, and to do almost any thing : and there are others 

 to whom they seem to take such an antipathy, that they 

 will attack them unprovoked. A great deal w r ill proba- 

 bly depend upon this whether any thing has happened 

 to put them out of humour. The bees usually do not 

 attack me ; but I remember one day last year, when the 

 asparagus was in blossom, which a large number were 

 attending, I happened to go between my asparagus beds ; 

 which discomposed them so much, that I was obliged to 



a Huber, ii. 407 b Ibid. 375. 



