THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT, ESQ. 61 



in the kitchen garden at Downton Castle, into which it had free 

 access through an aperture made to admit air. Mr. Knight 

 observed that during the process of incubation the old bird was 

 absent much more often from its nest than is usual during that 

 process, and yet that it had evidently not abandoned its eggs ; 

 he therefore watched its motions closely, and soon discovered 

 the curious fact, that the bird quitted its nest when the thermo- 

 meter rose to about /1 or 72, and returned to it when the 

 temperature sunk again ; thus seeming to have a knowledge 

 that only a certain degree of heat was necessary to the eggs, 

 and that, being furnished from another source, its own labours 

 might be dispensed with. The ostrich in the torrid regions of 

 Africa leaves her eggs, in like manner, to the influence of the 

 sun's rays during the day ; but Buffon and other naturalists 

 deny that there is any foundation for the vulgar belief of her 

 abandoning them altogether, and state that she constantly 

 returns to sit upon them during the night." 



The two following were addressed to Dr. Be van, author of a 

 work on the honey-bee : 



" In the course of my experiments I have had many oppor- 

 tunities of observing the peaceful and patient disposition of 

 bees, as individuals, which Mr. John Hunter has also in some 

 measure noticed. When one bee had collected its load and 

 was just prepared to take flight, another often came behind it, 

 and despoiled it of all it had collected. A second, and even a 

 third load was collected, and lost in the same manner, and still 

 the patient insect pursued its labour without betraying any 

 symptom of impatience or resentment* : when, however, the 

 hive is approached, the bee appears often to be the most irritable 

 of animals. They are probably by nature little disposed to fight, 



* The author of Insect Architecture in the Library of Entertaining Know- 

 ledge, after quoting the above from Mr. Knight, adds, " Probably the latter 

 circumstance at which Mr. Knight seems to have been surprised, was nothing 

 more than an instance of the division of labour, so strikingly exemplified in 

 every part of the economy of bees." 



