290 PHYSIOLOGY. 



Notwithstanding bees are thus occasionally 

 animated by a most vindictive spirit, against what 

 they regard as a public enemy, they are not found 

 to display any peculiar hostility in the revenge of 

 a private injury, committed upon them at a di- 

 stance from their homes. This is a fact which has 

 been noticed both by MR. HUNTER and MR. 

 KNIGHT. The former observes also, that bees 

 never sting but in the neighbourhood of their 

 property, unless hurt; that they never contend 

 with each other for honey, unless it be placed 

 within the boundary of their own right, but that 

 what they have collected they defend. The in- 

 disposition of bees to attack or be angry at a 

 distance has been confirmed by MR. KNIGHT, 

 who says, that, though the most irritable of animals 

 near home, he has seen them suffer themselves to 

 be patiently robbed of their loads by other bees, 

 and that he has witnessed this in the same bee 

 three times in succession. He says likewise, that 

 if the wasps in a nest have their communication 

 cut off from those that are abroad, the latter, on 

 their return, will not make any attack ; but that if 

 one escape from the interior, it evinces a very 

 different temper, and is ready to sacrifice its life 

 to avenge the injury. This MR. KNIGHT dis- 

 covered when a boy, and he has no doubt but 

 that if a similar proceeding were adopted towards 

 bees, they would observe the same conduct. 



