CHAPTER XII. 



HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING. 



Hearing — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — Sounds uttered by Queen 

 — Effects produced by them— Smell-Organs — Purposes — Liking 

 for, and Aniipathy to, certain Effluvia — Discovery by Bees of Nectar 

 and Honey. 



With regard to the sense of hearing, Sir John 

 Lubbock says : " The result of my experiments on 

 the hearing of bees has surprised me very much. 

 It is generally considered that, to a certain extent, 

 the emotions of bees are expressed by the sounds 

 they make, which seems to imply that they possess 

 the power of hearing. I do not by any means intend 

 to deny that this is the case. Nevertheless, I never 

 found them take any notice of any noise which I 

 made, even when it was close to them. I tried one 

 of my bees with a violin. I made all the noise I 

 could, but, to my surprise, she took no notice. I 

 could not even see a twitch of the antennae. The 

 next day I tried the same with another bee, but 

 could not see the slightest sign that she was con- 

 scious of the noise. On August 31st I repeated the 

 experiment with another bee, with the same result. 

 On September 12th and 13th I tried several bees with 

 a dog-whistle and a shrill pipe, but they took no notice 



