INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



423 



paired to an adjoining heap of dung, and soon returned with 

 three of his companions. All four now applied their united 

 strength to the pellet, and at length succeeded in pushing it 

 out ; which being done, the three assistant beetles left the 

 spot and returned to their own quarters. 1 



Lastly, insects are endowed with memory which (at least 

 in connection with the purposes to which it is subservient) 

 implies some degree of reason also ; and their historian may 

 exclaim with the poet who has so well sung the pleasures of 

 this faculty, 



" Hail, Memory, hail ! thy universal reign 

 Guards the least link of Being's glorious chain." 



In the elegant lines in which this couplet occurs 2 , which 

 were pointed out to me by my friend Dr. Alderson of Hull, 

 Mr. Rogers supposes the bee to be conducted to its hive by 

 retracing the scents of the various flowers which it has visited ; 

 but this idea is more poetical 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 

 similar instances, we have to regret the want of more correct 

 entomological information in the poet, who might have em- 

 ployed with as much effect, the real fact of bees distinguish- 

 ing their own hives out of numbers near them, when conducted 

 to the spot by instinct. This recognition of home seems 

 clearly the result of memory ; and it is remarkable that 

 bees appear to recollect their own hive rather from its situ- 



1 Illiger, Mag. i. 488. 



2 " Hark ! the bee winds her small but mellow horn, 



Blithe to salute the sunny smile of morn. 



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." 



