VOL. LXXXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 185 



Stand on the outside of some hive, or hives: especially when the evening is corn- 

 ins on: whether this arises from the smell of the hives, or sound, I can hardly 

 judge. 



Of the voice of bees. — Bees may be said to have a voice. They are certainly 

 capable of forming several sounds. They give a sound when flying, which they 

 can vary according to circumstances. One accustomed to bees can immediately 

 tell when a bee makes an attack, by the sound. These are probably made by 

 the wings. They may be seen standing at the door of their hive, with the belly 

 rather raised, and moving their wings, making a noise. But they produce a 

 noise independent of their wings; for if a bee is smeared all over with honey, so 

 as to make the wings stick together, it will be found to make a noise, which is 

 shrill and peevish. To ascertain this further, I held a bee by the legs, with a 

 pair of pincers; and observed it then made the peevish noise, though the wings 

 were perfectly still: I then cut the wings off, and found it made the same noise. 

 I examined it in water, but it then did not produce the noise, till it was very 

 much teased, and then it made the same kind of noise; and I could observe the 

 water, or rather the surface of contact of the water with the air at the mouth of 

 an air-hole at the root of the wing, vibrating. I have observed that they, or 

 some of them, make a noise the evenings before they swarm, which is a kind of 

 ring, or sound of a small trumpet: by comparing it with the notes of the piano 

 forte, it seemed to be the same with the lower a of the treble. 



Of the female parts. — I may here observe that insects differ from most of the 

 classes of animals above them, in having their eggs formed in the ducts along 

 which they pass; not in a cluster on the back, as in some fish, for instance all 

 of the ray kind, or what are called the amphibia, in the bird, and as is supposed 

 in the quadruped; thence the eggs are taken up, and by the ducts are carried 

 along to their places of destination. 



Of the oviducts. — ^The female of the common bee, similar to all the females of 

 the bee tribe, has 6 oviducts on each side, beginning by very small, and almost 

 imperceptible threads, as high as the chest; they then form one cord coiled up, 

 or pass very serpentine, and become larger and larger as they approach the anus, 

 owing to the gradual increased size of the eggs in them, which are now more 

 distinct, and give the duct a sort of interrupted appearance, toward the lower 

 end. The 6 ducts, when full of eggs, make a kind of quadrangle; then all 

 unite into one duct, which enters the duct common to it and the oviducts of the 

 other side. The ducts common to the 6 oviducts on each side, are extremely 

 tender: so much so, that it is difficult to save them. The duct common to those 

 on both sides may be called the vagina, and it is continued to the anus, or ter- 

 mination of the belly. 



Of the male parts. — The male parts of generation, in the common bee, are 



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