ORGAN OF HEARING. Ill 



assured me she was in number two, where quietness 

 and tranquillity prevailed. Still preserving the cir- 

 culation of the air, I closed the entrance of both, 

 that the bees, seeking for their queen, should not find 

 her. In two hours they calmed, and order was re- 

 stored ; and we afterwards saw the commencement of 

 three royal cells. 



"The apertures in the division between the halves 

 allowed the communication of the bees of number one 

 with a queen produced from these, by means of 

 smelling 1 and hearing. They were separated by an 

 interval not exceeding the third or fourth part of an 

 inch, which they could not pass : yet the same bees 

 became agitated ; they constructed royal cells, and 

 reared young queens, as if their queen had been quite 

 lost. This observation proves that it was neither 

 from sight, hearing, nor smell, that the bees were sen- 

 sible of the presence of their queen, and that the aid 

 of another sense was interposed. The division in- 

 serted between th&halves of the hive having deprived 

 them of nothing but contact with her, was it not very 

 probable that her presence had to be learned by 

 touching her with their antennae ? It is by means of 

 these organs that bees gain the knowledge of their 

 combs, their young, their companions, and also of 

 their queen, all communicated by the sense of 

 feeling. 



"To be satisfied on this point, a queen was con- 

 fined in a glass box, covered within with a grating, 

 which allowed the passage of the antenna?, but was 

 too small for the heads of the bees. We remarked 

 from the first, that the distress commonly following 

 the departure of a queen was not manifested on this 

 occasion. All the bees knew that she was not lost, 

 and when she was restored to them, they seemed to 

 recognise her immediately. The communications of the 

 bees with this queen were made by means of an infinite 



