ORGANS OF HEARING. 187 



turn to a peaceful rest in the evening; another, 

 while they call forth the whole hive in defence of 

 the state against the attacks of enemies ; another, 

 while they clean their hives from filth ; and an- 

 other, whilst the queen-bee leads forth a swarm to 

 seek new settlements. Now, I ask those who deny 

 hearing to insects, what can be the use of sounds 

 so variously modulated, unless the bees can by 

 hearing discriminate those sounds ?" * 



" Not once, but a hundred times, I have tried by 

 experiment the acuteness of hearing in insects, as 

 ften as I have delighted my mind with contem- 

 plating the beauties of nature in study during the 

 summer nights, destined otherwise for the purpose 

 of recruiting exhausted strength. In such cases, 

 how much attention is requisite to avoid disturbing 

 the roaming moths, and how rapid is their flight on 

 the least noise being made, even before I could have 

 imagined that the noise could have reached their 

 ears. 



" Unless, therefore, every circumstance misleads 

 me, the inference is correct, that there is a constant 

 relation between the power of expressing various 

 sounds and the power of perceiving the same ; and 

 this is strengthened the more as it is more clearly 

 seen and proved by sad experience in the case of a 

 man born deaf and dumb, which appears to prove 



* Field Naturalist's Magazine, i. p. 295. 



