THE HONEY-BEE. 
55 
purpose.” The same author gives an anecdote of 
another insect, which goes to prove that the antennas 
are indeed the organs of this sense : — “ A little moth 
was reposing on mv window ; I made a quiet, not 
loud, hut distinct noise ; the nearest antennae imme- 
diately moved towards me ; I repeated the noise at 
least a dozen times, and it was followed every time 
by the same motion of that organ, till at length the 
insect being alarmed, became agitated and violent in 
its motions. In this instance it could not be touch, 
since the antenna; were not applied to a surface, hut 
directed towards the quarters from which the sound 
came, as if to listen.” 
Smelling . — Of all their senses, that of smell in Bees 
is the most acute. Attracted by the fragrance of the 
flowers, we see them winging their eager ■way to a 
very considerable distance, in a straight undeviating 
course, and in the very teeth of a strong wind,* in 
search of those plants which promise an abundant 
* It has been said that Bees ballast themselves with sand 
or gravel when in danger of being blown away by the wind. 
The notion was first entertained by Aristotle, and repeated by 
Virgil, to whose poetic imagination such a trait in the habit3 
of his favourite insects would be highly grateful : — 
Saepe lnpillos 
U t cymbao instabiles, fhietu jactaute saburram 
ToDunt : his sese per inunia uubila librant. 
Pliny has also lent his aid to the currency of this notion ; and 
it is found in Dissertations on the Natural History of Bees, 
as a surprising instance of bee-instinct, notwithstanding the 
corrections of Swammerdam and Reaumur, both of whom have 
shewn that the Mason-Bee. has been mistaken for the Honey- 
Bee , the former of whom is often seen hastening through the 
air, loaded with sand and gravel, the materials of its nest. 
