74 NATURAL HISTORY OF WASPS. 
communicating with the wasps inside the nest be 
correct. 
With reference to the sense of hearing, one reason 
for regarding the antenne as equivalent to the ears 
of the higher animals is that no other organ has been 
discovered in insects to which this faculty can be 
assigned, though it is quite certain, from observation, 
that insects do not only hear, but make noises with 
the intention of bemg heard. As we rise in the scale 
of Creation, where distinct organs of hearing do 
appear, they are found close to, and supplied by the 
same nerves as the antennz. The hard horny cover- 
ing of these organs makes them, in the wasp at least, 
ill adapted for imstruments of touch, but in that 
measure fitted to receivé and transmit vibrations of 
sound.* And in their general structure we may 
perceive a close analogy to the loose chain of ear- 
bones of mammalia, or to the bony needle which in 
birds performs the same office of transmitting vibra- 
tions from the membrana tympani to the auditory 
nerve. , 
Those who have tried most experiments are most 
alive to the sources of fallacy which vitiate the con- 
clusions from them. We know, from the effects of 
accident or disease in ourselves, how very small a 
portion of an organ, how seemingly imperfect an 
ear, may suffice to carry on its duties. And we 
know how very little is to be based on the actions of 
a creature frightened and excited by such mutilation 
as would be necessary to destroy completely any 
organ of special sense with all its means of external 
* See on this subject Rymer Jones, ‘General Outline of the Animal 
Kingdom,’ 8vo, 1841, p. 275. 
