PHYSIOLOGY. . 295 



though not of frequent occurrence, have been 

 occasionally noticed by others. 



SLEEP OF BEES. 



It is reasonable to suppose that every part of 

 animated nature needs occasional intervals of re- 

 pose. That this is the case with the bee seems 

 evident, from the almost motionless quietude of 

 the workers, which often occurs for fifteen or 

 twenty minutes together, each bee inserting its 

 head and thorax into a cell, where it might be 

 mistaken for dead, were it not for the dilatation 

 of the segments of its abdomen. The queen some- 

 times does the same in a drone's cell, where she 

 continues without motion a very long time, when 

 " the workers form a circle round her, and gently 

 brush the uncovered parts of her abdomen. The 

 drones while reposing do not enter the cells, but 

 cluster in the combs, and sometimes remain with- 

 out stirring a limb for eighteen or twenty hours." 

 HUBER says that he has seen the workers, even in 

 the middle of the day, when apparently wearied 

 with exertion, insert half their bodies into the 

 empty cells, and remain there, as if taking a nap, 

 for half an hour or longer ; at night they regularly 

 muster, in a sleep-like silence. 



" The sun declining, through the murky air, 

 Home to their hives the vagrant bands repair, 



