26 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
Ou 
which were pointed out to me by my friend Dr. Alder- 
son of Hull, Mr. Rogers supposes the bee to be con- 
ducted to its hive by retracing the scents of the various 
flowers which it has visited: but this idea is more poeti- 
cal than accurate, bees, as before observed’, flying 
straight to their hives from great distances. Here, as 
I have more than once had occasion to remark in simi- 
lar instances, we have to regret the want of more correct 
entomological information in the poet, who might have 
employed with as much effect, the real fact of bees di- 
stinguishing their own hives out of numbers near them, 
when conducted to the spot by instinct. This recogni- 
tion of home seems clearly the result of memory; and it 
is remarkable that bees appear to recollect their own 
hive rather from its situation, than from any observa- 
tions on the hive itself®: just as a man is guided to his 
house from his memory of its position relative to“other 
O’er thymy downs she bends her busy course, 
And many a stream allures her to its source. 
*Tis noon, ’tis night. That eye so finely wrought, 
Beyond the search of sense, the soar of thought, 
Now vainly asks the scenes she left behind ; 
Its orb so full, its vision so confined ! 
Who guides the patient pilgrim to her cell ? 
Who bids her soul with conscious triumph swell ? 
With conscious truth retrace the mazy clue 
Of varied scents that charm’d her as she flew ? 
Hail, Memory, hail! thy universal reign ; 
Guards the least link of Being’s glorious chain.” 
4 See above, p. 188 and 501. 
» Ifa hive be removed out ofits ordinary position, the first day after 
this removal, the bees do not fly to a distance without having visited 
all the neighbouring objects. The queen does the same thing when 
flying into the air for fecundation. Huber, Recherches sur les Four= 
mis, 100, 
