INSTINCTS OF BEES. 319 



the honey-bee ; some of them I have before no- 

 ticed, and shall now advert to a few more. 



The mental powers of bees, if I may be allowed 

 to use the term, have been included, by some 

 writers under the general name of Instinct* ; 

 others, considering the whole of their proceedings 

 to be fraught with intelligence, have regarded 

 them as evidences of a reasoning power. All the 

 pheenomena of insect life cannot I presume be ex- 

 plained without giving them credit for both. 



" Deem not, vain mortal, that reserved for thee 

 Hangs all the ripening fruit on reason*s tree ; 

 Even these,the tiniest tenants of thy care, 

 Claim of that reason, their apportioned share : 

 Witness yon slaughtered snail, within their door, 

 Tomb'd like the first bold Greek on Ilion's shore.'* 



EVANS. 



A snail having crept "into one of M. Reaumur's 

 hives early in the morning, after crawling about for 

 some time, adhered by means of its own slime to 

 one of the glass panes, where, but for the bees, 

 it would probably have remained, till either a 



* Huber has observed that the instinct of the humble- 

 bee is still more refined than that of the honey-bee. As an 

 instance of this, he states that the former when unable to 

 penetrate a flower through its natural cavity, makes an aper- 

 ture at the base of the corolla, or even of the calyx, and in- 

 sinuates its proboscis into the reservoir of honey, through 

 the opening it has made. 





