Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/58

 wrath, for she was evidently in a state of great irritation, but continued to surround the cell of the captive queen with a dogged-looking obstinacy, apparently expecting and prepared for another attempt on it by the enraged sovereign. Huber may be in the rights and his general accuracy affords a presumption in his favour; nevertheless, it would be very satisfactory to have his accuracy in this particular point confirmed by some other observer. Taking it for granted that the sense of hearing does exist in Bees, where are we to look for the situation of the organ? Naturalists are not agreed on this point, but the majority seem to vest it in the antennæ. Kirby and Spence notice the analogy borne by antennæ to the ears of vertebrate animals, such as their corresponding in number, and standing out of the head; and observe that no other organ has been found which can be supposed to represent the ear. In that case this appendage of the head of the Bee must be regarded as a compound organ, exercising the functions of both hearing and touch. It has already been hinted that some observers have regarded it as the organ of vision; and we shall afterwards find that there are those who look upon it as the organ of smell. In this deficiency of precise knowledge on the subject, we may perhaps rest satisfied with the opinion of Kirby, that "the antennæ, by a peculiar structure, may collect notices from the atmosphere, receive pulses or vibrations, and communicate them to the sensorium, which communications, though not precisely to be called hearing, may answer the same