48 The Honey-Makers 



''And although they cannot dance by measure or 

 according to the just number of paces, as the elephant 

 is said to do, yet according as he that tinks on the 

 brazen kettle pleaseth, so they slack or quicken their 

 flying; if he beat fast and shrill, then they mend their 

 motion, if dully and slowly, then they abate it." 



One would much hke to see these bees of olden time 

 dancing to the piping — or rather "linking " — of their 

 masters. 



The words of their seventeenth-century historian may 

 not prove to the satisfaction of the exacting modern 

 scientists that bees possess the sense of hearing, but 

 they certainly do prove that the people of olden time 

 believed they did. 



Butler has surpassed every one in his faith in the musi- 

 cal power of bees. He has actually written a musical 

 score which he calls the Melissomeios^ or " Bee's Madrigal," 

 the swarming song which the bees sing just before leaving 

 the hive. It is well known that the queen utters a peculiar 

 note at that time, and that the sound of the swarm prepar- 

 ing to issue is characteristic ; and Butler discovered, to his 

 own satisfaction at least, that the queen and the departing 

 " prince " sing to each other a well-defined song, of which 

 the queen takes the bass, the young " prince " the treble. 

 After explaining the different notes and chords used by 

 bees, he adds, — 



" So that if music were lost, it might be found with the 

 muses' birds." 



The antennae are not only ears, but are nostrils to their 

 possessors, a fact proved for the first time, as far as we 

 know, by Huber. 



" Not only do bees have a very acute sense of smell,'" 

 says he, " but they add to this faculty the remembrance of 

 sensations. Here is an example : We had placed some 



