424 



INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



ation, than from any observations on the hive itself 1 : just 

 as a man is guided to his house from his memory of its posi- 

 tion relative to other buildings or objects, without its being 

 necessary for him even to cast a look at it. If, after quitting 

 my house in a morning, it were to be lifted out of its site in 

 the street by enchantment, and replaced by another with a 

 similar entrance, I should probably, even in the daytime, 

 enter it, without being struck by the change ; and bees, if 

 during their absence their old hive be taken away, and a 

 similar one set in its place, enter this last ; and if it be pro- 

 vided with brood-comb contentedly take up their abode in 

 it, never troubling themselves to inquire what has become of 

 the identical habitation which they left in the morning, and 

 with the inhabitants of which, if it be removed to fifty paces 

 distance, they never resume their connection. 2 



If, pursuing my illustration, you should object that no 

 man would thus contentedly sit down in a new house without 

 searching after the old one, you must bear in mind that I 

 am not aiming to show that bees have as precise a memory 

 as ours, but only that they are endowed with some portion of 

 this faculty, which I think the above fact proves. Should 

 you view it in a different light, you will not deny the force 

 of others that have already been stated in the course of our 

 correspondence : such as the mutual greetings of ants of the 

 same society when brought together after a separation of 

 four months ; and the return of a party of bees in spring to 

 a window where in the preceding autumn they had regaled 

 on honey, though none of this substance had been again 

 placed there. 3 



1 If a hive be removed out of its ordinary position, the first day after this 

 removal the bees do not fly to a distance without having visited all the neigh- 

 bouring objects. The queen does the same thing when flying into the air for 

 fecundation. (Huber, Recherches sur les Fourmis, 100.) 



2 See the account of the mode in which the Favignanais increase the number 

 of their hives by thus dividing them. (Huber, ii. 459.) 



3 A remarkable fact, proving at once that insects are endowed with memory, 

 association of ideas, and the sense of hearing, has been recorded by M. Goureau, 

 the author of the valuable observations on the stridulation of insects, before 

 referred to in treating of their noises. He kept for several days a praying 

 mantis (M. religiosa) in a box, and fed it with flies. On first placing it in its 

 new abode he irritated it with a pen, and at the same time gave a slight whistle. 

 Apparently fearing an enemy, it put itself in a state of defence, reared up its 



