PHYSIOLOGY. 261 



tiles ; and Mr. Stickney is persuaded, that if 

 suffered, they would have established themselves 

 there. He is certain that for eight years suc- 

 cessively the descendants of the very stock that 

 first took possession of the hole, frequented it as 

 above stated, and not those of any other swarms ; 

 having constantly noticed them, and ascertained 

 that they were bees from the original hive by 

 powdering them, while about the tiles, with yellow 

 ochre, and watching their return. And even at 

 the present time, there are still seen every swarm- 

 ing season about the tiles, bees, which Mr. Stickney 

 has no doubt are descendants from the original 

 stock." 



Some anecdotes of the spider prove that insects 

 are capable of instruction. M. PELISSON, when he 

 was confined in the Bastile, tamed a spider, and 

 taught it to come for food at the sound of an 

 instrument. A manufacturer also, in an apart- 

 ment at Paris, fed 800 spiders, which became so 

 tame, that whenever he entered it, which he 

 usually did with a dish of flies, they immediately 

 came down to receive their food. That insects 

 are susceptible of a change of habits, or rather 

 that they may acquire civilized habits, if I may 

 say so, is shown by the domestication of bees, 

 and occasionally by that of ants and wasps. 

 HUBER'S experiments, with leaf hives, show the 

 existence of this faculty in an eminent degree, for 



