INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 585 



It will be these individuals alone that I shall understand by the term hees, 

 under the present head ; and though the other inhabitants of the hive may 

 occasionally concur in some of their actions and labors, yet it is obvious 

 that so many as are those in which they distinctly take part, so many 

 instincts must we regard them as endowed with. 



To begin, then, with the formation of the colony. By one instinct 

 bees are directed to send out scouts previously to their swarming, in search 

 of a suitable abode ; and by another to rush out of the hive after the 

 queen that leads forth the swarm, and follow wherever she bends her 

 course. Having taken possession of their new abode, whether of their 

 own selection or prepared for them by the hand of man, a third instinct 

 teaches them to cleanse it from all impurities^ ; a fourth to collect propolis, 

 and with it to stop up every crevice exceptthe entrance; a fifth to venti- 

 late the hive for preserving the purity of the air ; and a sixth to keep a 

 constant guard at the door.^ 



In constructing the houses and streets of their new city, or the cells 

 and combs, there are probably several distinct instincts exercised ; but, 

 not to leave room for objection, I shall regard them as the result of 

 one only : yet the operations of polishing the interior of the cells, and 

 soldering their angles and orifices with propolis, which are sometimes not 

 undertaken for weeks after the cells are built^ ; and the obscure, but still 

 more curious one, of varnishing them with the yellow tinge observable in 

 old combs, — seem clearly referable to at least two distinct instincts. The 

 varnishing process is so little connected with that of building, that though 

 it takes place in some combs in three or four days, it does not in others 

 for several months, though both are equally employed for the same uses.'* 

 Huber ascertained by accurate experiment that this tinge is not owing to 

 the heat of the hives ; to any vapors in the air which they include ; to 

 any emanations from the wax or honey ; nor to the deposition of this last 

 in the cells ; but he inclines to think it is occasioned by a yellow matter 

 which the bees seem to detach from their mandibles, and to apply to the 

 surface which they are varnishing, by repeated strokes of these organs and 

 of the fore-feet.^ 



In their out-of-door operations several distinct instincts are concerned. 

 By one they are led to extract honey from the nectaries of flowers ; by 

 another to collect pollen after a process involving very complicated mani- 

 pulations, and requiring a singular apparatus of brushes and baskets ; and 

 that must surely be considered a third which so remarkably and beneficially 

 restricts each gathering to the same plant. It is clearly a distinct instinct 

 which inspires bees with such dread of rain, that even if a cloud pass 

 before the sun, they return to the hive in the greatest haste^; and that 

 seems to me not less so, which teaches them to find their way back to 

 their home after the most distant and intricate wanderings. When bees 

 have found the direction in which their hive lies, Huber says they fly to it 

 with an extreme rapidity, and as straight as a ball from a musket''' ; and 

 if their hives were always in open situations, one might suppose, as Huber 

 seems inclined to think, that it is by their sight they are conducted to them. 

 But hives are frequently found in small gardens embowered in wood, and 



» Huber, ii. 102. « Ibid. i. 186. ii. 412. 3 Ibid. ii. 264. 



« Ibid. ii. 274. ^ ibid. n. 275. e Ibid. i. 356. "> Ibid. ii. 367. 



