PIPERS AND MINNESINGERS 9 



vibrate. Thus Professor Mayer found that the range 

 of one of these antennae extended over the middle and 

 next higher octaves of a piano. From this it seems 

 that this insect is equipped to enjoy the music of his 

 lady ; not only this, but, as was shown by further 

 experiments, he is enabled to tell in what direction to 

 find her. The large globular basal segment of the 

 antenna has been foiind, on dissection, to be an audi- 

 tory capsule. 



If poets have found little to enjoy in the buzzing of 

 flies, they have been most appreciative of the other 

 wing-singers, the bees ; the allusions to their soothing 

 strains are innumerable. The song of 



" The golden banded bees 

 Droning o'er the flowery leas " 



seems to have been comforting and dear to humanity 

 for many centuries. The poetic literature devoted 

 to bees is much larger than that given to any other 

 insect, and at the same time more casual. They are 

 constantly alluded to as companions of the flowers, 

 and are, in the poet mind, an essential part of bloom- 

 decked meadows and hillsides. Their peaceful hum is 

 the background against which clover and fruit blooms 



are painted. 



" The blossomed apple tree, 

 Among its flowery tufts, on every spray, 



