The sense of hearing has been denied bees by some, but against all evidence; others contend that the seat of this power is also situate in their antennæ. The sounds which bees emit, particularly at swarming time, are conclusive that they possess this faculty; the only reasons for arriving at an opposite conclusion seem to be, that they are indifferent to most sounds, even the loudest, not emitted by themselves--but even to this there is the notable exception of the fright they evince at drumming on their hives--and that no precise organ of hearing can be found. Naturalists are now more united in the opinion that the seat of hearing is here located. The antennæ are said to have also another office, viz., that they act as a barometer, by which bees know the stale of the weather and are premonished of storms; the darkening of the sky seems, however, to be frequently the cause of their trooping homeward, though they care not for the loudest thunder, so long as the sun continues to shine. In the dark recesses of the hive the feelers are exceedingly serviceable, and may truly be denominated "eyes to the blind." Bees possess acutely the sense of smell, and, attracted by the fragrance of flowers, they may be seen winging their way a considerable distance in an undeviating course, even sometimes in the face of weather which one might have thought they would not have braved. The precise seat of this sense, however, is another doubtful point. Dr. Dönhoff ascribes this also to the antennæ, stating that if these are cut off the bees lose the faculty, but regain it after a time. Schönfeld takes this as proving the case the other way; but are we not familiar with analogies in which on the loss of some organ its function has been developed elsewhere--especially when as here the rudiments of the lost part must have remained? Schönfeld's own surmise is that the faculty resides in the surfaces of the inner respiratory organs; Dr. Hicks (the assistant author of Samuelson's "Honey Bee") places it in a number of vesicles at the roots of the wings; others again attribute it to two depressions in the lower portion of the face. But Dönhoff's reference to the antennæ has experiment, to our view, in its favour, though of course not decisively so. But whether this is correct or not, this pair of horns play an important part with the useful faculties which they combine.