SENSE OF HEARING. 39 



destitute of the power of hearing it ? But Huber un- 

 equivocally admits that they do hear it, and further, that it is 

 a language which they perfectly understand, the meaning of 

 which was, that the hunger of the clamorous queens was 

 great, and that they called upon their subjects immediately 

 to satisfy it : now if the bees were by nature deaf, as Huber 

 alleges, the queens might have clacked till they fainted, and 

 been in the end literally starved to death. 



We will now proceed to adduce another instance. It 

 appears from the ocular experience of Huber, that the bees, 

 under particular circumstances, behave in a most rude and 

 indecorous manner to the queen regnant, amounting almost 

 to a treasonable attempt upon her life ; one of which circum- 

 stances is, when the queen is in her passions so cold and 

 phlegmatic, or so culpably indifferent to the interests of her 

 monarchy, as to refuse to leave the hive for the purpose of 

 being fecundated in the open air by her favourite drone. 

 On such occasions, according to the valuable and accredited 

 discoveries of Huber, the bees become outrageously im- 

 pudent, following the queen in all directions, and biting and 

 teasing her in the most merciless manner ; by which 

 ungracious treatment, the life of the queen would be put in 

 the greatest jeopardy, had not nature kindly provided her 

 with the means of checking their rudeness, by investing her 

 with the power of uttering a particular sound, which when 

 accompanied by a certain attitude, which the queen can 

 assume at pleasure, strikes the bees instantly motionless, 

 and they hang their heads, confounded with the sense of 

 their indecorous behaviour. Now Huber in the above 

 statement positively and unequivocally awards to the bees 

 the sense of hearing ; the effect of the sound uttered by the 

 queen is truly astonishing upon them : and yet, notwith- 

 standing the minuteness with which Huber describes these 

 occurrences ; notwithstanding the existence of the sense of 

 hearing in the bees is actually indispensable in order to 

 c 4 



