purpose." The same author gives an anecdote of another insect, which goes to prove that the antennæ are indeed the organs of this sense:—"A little moth was reposing on my window; I made a quiet, not loud, but distinct noise; the nearest antennæ immediately 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 antennæ were not applied to a surface, but 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,[1] 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 habits of his favourite insects would be highly grateful:
Saepe lapillos
Ut cymbae instabiles, fluctu jactante saburram
Tollunt: his sese per inania nubila 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.
