THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



65 



diers, havinc eaten a quantity of honey in th? 

 environs of Trcbizonde, were seized with ver- 

 tigo, vomitings, &c. This effect was attributed 

 to the rose-laurel (Rhododendron Ponticum,) 

 and yellow azalea (Azalea Pontica). Father 

 Lamberti also assiires us that a" shrub of Min- 

 grelia produces a kind of honey which causes 

 very deleterious effects. It is quite possible that 

 the poisonous juices extracted from these plants 

 might be innoxious to the bees themselves, and 

 thus the correctness of their taste might be so 

 far vindicated. Sir I. E. Smith asserts that 

 "the nectar of plants is not poisonous to bees;" 

 and an instance is given in the American Phil- 

 osophical Transactions, of a party of young 

 men, who, induced by a prospect of gain, hav- 

 ing removed their hives from Pennsylvania to 

 the Jerseys, where there are vast savannahs, 

 finely painted with the flowers of the Kalniia 

 angustifolia, could not use or dispose of their 

 honey on account of its intoxicating quality; 

 yet "the bees increased prodigiously" — an in- 

 crease only to be explained, says Dr. Be van, in 

 his Honey Bee, by their being well and harm- 

 lessly fed. Nor is this defense of the taste 

 of the bees successfully controvei'ted by the fol- 

 lowing occurrence stated in Nicholson's Jour- 

 nal: "A large swarm of bees having settled" — 

 observe they had merely lighted upon it, to rest 

 perhaps after a long flight — "on a branch of the 

 P' ison ash, (Rhus Vernix,) in the county of 

 Westchester, in the State of New York, was 

 put into a hive and removed to the place where 

 it wa« to remain. Next morning the bees were 

 found dead, swelled to double their natural size, 

 and black, except a few which appeared torpid 

 and feeble, and soon died on exposure to the 

 air." This was attributed to their being poi- 

 soned, not by their having fed upon, but by the 

 effluvia of the Rhus Vernix. 



Hearing. — Considerable difference of opin- 

 ion has prevailed among naturalists, both as to 

 the existence of this sense in bees, and the sit- 

 uation of the organ. Aristotle was doubtful 

 whether bees possess this sense. " Incertim 

 est an audiant." Linnreus and Bonnet denied 

 them the faculty, and Huber seems undecided 

 on the point; while a host of others, among 

 whom are ranked Kirby and Spence, maintain 

 its existence, and place the organ in the anten- 

 nae. We know that the bees dislike noise, for 

 an apiary situated near mills, smitheys, or other 

 noisy workshops, is seldom prosperous. The 

 different modulations of sound produced by the 

 wings in flying, seem intended as a means of 

 communication addressed to the organ of hear- 

 ing, as signals of attack, recall, of departure, 

 &c. In consequence of a belief in the reality of 

 this sense in bees, the practice is common of 

 beating sonorous bodies at the moment of 

 swarming, in order to prevent them from com- 

 municating with one another, and thus present 

 an obstacle to their flying away. We know, 

 also, that many other insects possess this faculty; 

 and as we observe in the proceedings of the bees, 

 the same effects which in other insects unques- 

 tionably proceed from the sense of hearing, we 

 regard these effects as presumptive evidence of 

 the former ikwgeasing tho eame faxJultiy. Huber 



sets out with intimating a doubt of its exist- 

 ence—possibly in deference to his friend Bon- 

 net, to whom his letters are addressed, and who 

 was an unbeliever in its reality — yet in the end 

 confesses that he is strongly tempted to believe 

 in it, or at least to admit'in bees a sense analo- 

 gous to hearing, observing that certain sounds, 

 as produced by bees, apparently serve as a sig- 

 nal to their companions, and are followed by reg- 

 ular consequences, and that, therefore, they may 

 be additional means of communication to those 

 afforded by the antenna?. He mentions particu- 

 larly a sound emitted by the queen, which pro- 

 duces a paralyzing effect on the bees in certain 

 circumstances. Describing the attempts of a 

 reigning queen to destroy her rivals while yet in 

 the cells, he tells us tlmt "the bees on guard pull- 

 ed her,bit her, and chased her away." In these 

 circumstances she emitted the sound alluded to; 

 "standing, while doing so. with her thorax 

 agp,inst a comb, and her wings crossed on her 

 back, in motion, but without being unfolded or 

 farther opened. Whatever might be the cause 

 of her assuming this attitude, the bees were af- 

 fected by it ; all hung down their heads and 

 remained motionless." On another occasion, 

 after a queen had put her rival to death, "she 

 approached a royal cell, and took this moment 

 to utter the sound, and assume that posture 

 which strikes the bess motionless." This dis- 

 covery of Huber has been brought forward, on 

 his authority, by naturalists, as a conclusive 

 evidence of the existence of the auditory fac- 

 ulty in bees. And so it would be, if Huber was 

 not mistaken in his supposed discovery. A voice 

 of sovereignty producing such powerful and in- 

 stantaneous effects on her subjects, is so remark- 

 able a property of her bee-majesty, that it would 

 be desirable to have its existence proved beyond 

 doubt by succeeding experiments. With much 

 confidence in the accuracy of that distinguished 

 naturalist's observations, we entertain some 

 hesitation on the subject of this magical sound. 

 We have seen the queen in all the circumstances 

 and in all the positions observable within a hive; 

 (with one exception, namely, combating a rival 

 queen,) we have observed her majesty very fre- 

 quently in the particular situation described by 

 Huber when he first heard the commanding 

 voice, endeavoring to tear open the cell of a ri- 

 val, and angrily repulsed by the workers; then 

 standing at a little distance on the surface of the 

 comb, with her wings crossed over her back, and 

 in motion, though not fully unfolded, and emit- 

 ting the clear, distinct sound which is heard in a 

 hive a day or two previous to the departure of 

 a second swarm; and certainly we never wit- 

 nessed any such effect produced on the bees as 

 Huber speaks of, and which, had it taken place, 

 could not possibly have escaped our observa- 

 tion. On the contrary, the bees seemed not in 

 the slightest degree affected by her wrath, for 

 she was evidently in a state of great irritation, 

 but continued to surround the cell of the cap- 

 tive queen with a dogged-looking obstinacy, 

 apparently expecting or prepared for another 

 attempt on it by the enraged sovereign. Huber 

 may be in the right, and his general accuracy 

 affoi'dg a pres'umiJtidn iu'hls feT<)r; iWVOTthefess 



