TASTE SIGHT. 



organs is manifested by the delicate choice of food which the 

 insect makes, showing a preference for those flowers, wherever 

 they can be found, which yield the finest honey. Hence the cele- 

 brity of the honey of Narbonne, Hymettus, Hybla, and Pontus. 



180. Numerous indications show that the bee possesses the 

 sense of hearing. The manner in which they are attracted to any 

 quarter of the hive where an unusual noise is produced, has been 

 already mentioned. Dr. Bevan mentions some curious examples 

 of their power of hearing, and even of the sense they seem to 

 attach to particular vocal sounds. Thus he mentions an old 

 dame of his acquaintance, who was a very fearless operator in the 

 treatment of these insects, and who used to suppress any move- 

 ment of anger on the part of the bees merely by saying to them, 

 "Ah! would you dare?" A servant of Mr. Knight, the well- 

 known apiarian, used to quell their anger by exclaiming, * ' Get 

 along, you little fools ! " 



Some difference of opinion has nevertheless prevailed as to the 

 existence of this sense in insects. The opinion of Linnccus and 

 Bonnet was against it. Many evidences, however, may be adduced 

 in favour of its existence. Thus, one grasshopper will chirp in 

 response to another, and the female will be attracted by the voice 

 of the male. Brunelli shut up a male in a box, and allowed the 

 female her liberty ; as soon as the male chirped she flew to him 

 immediately. A bee on the window within a bee-house will 

 make a responsive buzz to its fellows on the outside.* 



181. The indications of a keen sense of vision, in the certainty 

 and precision with which the bee flies to its pasturage and back 

 to its hive, have been already mentioned. Naturalists, however, 

 are not agreed as to the particular power of the eyes of these 

 insects. Some, for example, contend that their sight is extremely 

 short, and that 



Its feeble ray scarce spreads 

 An inch around ; 



while others contend that its vision of near objects is obscure and 

 imperfect, but for distant ones quite distinct. Thus Butler and 

 Wildman say that they have observed the bees go up and down 

 seeking the door of the hive, as if they were in the dark ; but 

 Bevan observed that they easily discovered it by rising on the 

 wing, and thus throwing themselves at a greater distance 

 from it. 



182. Among the mysteries of the social economy of the bee, there 

 is perhaps nothing more curious than the circumstances which, 

 in certain cases, appear to affect the personal character of the 



* Bevan, p. 362. 



91 



