Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. 137 
79 0 ; at nine the’same morning, it had risen to 83°, and at one 
o'clock to 84° ; and at nine in the evening it was down to 78°. 
December 30th, air at 35 0 , bees at 73 0 . 
Although bees support a heat nearly equal to that of a 
quadruped, yet their external covering is not different from 
that of insects which do not ; there is no difference between 
their coat and a common fly's or wasp’s, nor are they fatter, all 
which makes them bad retainers of heat ; therefore they are 
chilly ; and in a cold too severe for them to be comfortable in, 
they make up for their want of size singly, and get into clus- 
ters. A single bee has so little power of keeping itself warm, 
that it presently becomes numbed, and almost motionless ; a 
common night in summer will produce this effect : a cold ca- 
pable of producing such effects kills them soon, by which means 
vast numbers die; therefore a common bee is obliged to feed 
and live in society, to keep itself warm in cold weather. We 
know that the consumption of heat may be greater than the 
power of forming it ; when that is the case, we become sensible 
of it, and then take on such actions as are either instinctive, 
such as arise naturally out of the impression, or as reason, 
custom, or habit direct. Many animals, upon the impression 
of cold, coil themselves up in their own fur, bringing all their 
extremities into the centre, or hollow of the belly ; birds bring 
their feet under the belly, and thrust their bill between their 
wing and body ; many, if not all, go to the warmest places, 
either from instinctive principle, or habit: but the bees have 
no other mode but forming clusters, and the larger the better. 
As they are easily affected by cold, their instinctive principle 
respecting cold is very strong, as likewise with regard to wet, 
mdccxcii. T 
