PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 389 
plore every part of it and of the tree with the greatest attention, even sur- 
yeying the dead knots and the like." When a hiye stands unemployed, a 
swarm will also sometimes send scouts to take possession of it, 
How long our little active creatures repose before they take a second ex- 
cursion I cannot precisely say. In a hive the greatest part of the inhabi- 
tants generally appear in repose, lying together, says Reaumur, but this 
probably for a short time. Huber tells us, that bees may always be ob- 
served in a hive with the head and thorax inserted into cells that contain 
eggs, and sometimes into empty ones ; and that they remain in this situa- 
tion fifteen or twenty minutes, so motionless that, did not the dilatation of 
the segments of the abdomen prove the contrary, they might be mistaken 
for dead. He supposes their object is to repose from their labours.” 
The queen, for this purpose, enters the large cells of the males, and con- 
tinues in them without motion a very long time. Even then the workers 
form a circle round her, and brush the uncovered part of her abdomen, 
The drones, while reposing, do not enter the cells, but cluster in the combs, 
and sometimes remain without stirring a limb for eighteen or twenty 
hours.® 
Reaumur observes, that in a hive the population of which amounts to 
18,000, the number that enters the hive in a minute is ahundred; which, al- 
lowing fourteen hours in the day for their labour, makes 84,000 : thus every 
individual must make four excursions daily, and some five. In hives where 
the population was smaller, the numbers that entered were comparatively 
greater, SO as to give six excursions or more to each bee.* But in this 
calculation Reaumur does not seem to take into the account those that 
are employed within the hive in building or feeding the young brood, which 
must render the excursions of each bee still more numerous. He proceeds 
further to ground upon this statement a calculation of the quantity of bee- 
bread that may be collected in one day by such a hive; and he found, sup- 
posing only half the number to collect it, that it would amount to more 
than a pound ; so that in one season one such a hive might collect a 
hundred pounds.® What a wonderful idea does this give of the industry 
and activity of these little useful creatures! And what a lesson do they 
read to the members of societies that have both reason and religion to 
guide their exertions for the common good! Adorable is that Great Being 
who has gifted them with instincts which render them as instructive to us, 
if we will condescend to listen to them, as they are profitable. 
While I am upon this part of the story of bees, I cannot pass over the 
1 Knight in Philos. Trans. for 1807, 237. Marshall, Agricult. of Norfolk. 
g It has been supposed, and the supposition was adopted originally in this work 
(Vol. I. Ist ed. p- 871,), that the object in this case is brooding the eggs; but upon 
further consideration we incline to Huber’s opinion, that it has no connection with 
it, the ordinary temperature of the hive being suflicient for this purpose ; and the 
Grcumstance of their entering unoccupied cells proves that this attitude has no 
Particular connection with the eggs. (Huber, i. 212.) When large pieces of comb,” 
Says Wildman (p, 45.), “were broken off and left at the bottom of the hive, a 
Sreat number of bees have gone and placed themselves upon them,” ‘This looks 
‘ke Incubation, Reaumur, however, affirms (p. 591.) that if part of a comb falls 
and loses its perpendicular direction, the bees, as if conscious that they would come 
tonothing, pull out and destroy all the larve. They might perhaps remain per- 
Pendioular in the case observed by Wildman. 
; Reaum, y. 431. Huber, ii, 212, 4 Reaum. yv, 482. 
Ibid. y. 434, 
coos 
