As the death of our hives of bees appears to be owning to their being kept so warm, as to require food when their stock is exhausted; a very observing gentleman at my request put two hives for many weeks into a dry cellar, and observed, during all that time, they did not consume any of their provision, for their weight did not decrease as it had done when they were kept in the open air.  The same observation is made in the Annual Register for 1768, p. 113.  And the Rev. Mr. White, in his Method of preserving Bees, adds, that those on the north side of his house consumed less honey in the winter than those on the south side.

There is another observation on bees well ascertained, that they at various times, when the season begins to be cold, by a general motion of their legs as they hang in clusters produce a degree of warmth, which is easily perceptible by the hand.  Hence by this ingenious exertion, they for a long time prevent the torpid state they would naturally fall into.

According to the late observations of Mr. Hunter, it appears that the bee’s-wax is not made from the dust of the anthers of flowers, which they bring home on their thighs, but that this makes what is termed bee-bread, and is used for the purpose of feeding the bee-maggots; in the same manner butterflies live on honey, but the previous caterpillar lives on vegetable leaves, while the maggots of large flies require flesh for their food, and those of the ichneumon fly require insects for their food.  What induces the bee who lives on honey to lay up vegetable powder for its young?  What induces the butterfly to lay its eggs on leaves, when itself feeds on honey?  What induces the other flies to seek a food for their progeny different from what they consume themselves?  If these are not deductions from their own previous experience or observation, all the actions of mankind must be resolved into instinct.

3.  The dormouse consumes but little of its food during the rigour of the season, for they roll themselves up, or sleep, or lie torpid the greatest part of the time; but on warm sunny days experience a short revival, and take a little food, and then relapse into their former state.” (Pennant Zoolog. p. 67.) Other animals, that sleep in winter without laying up any provender, are observed to go into their winter beds fat and strong, but return to day-light in the spring season very lean and feeble.  The common flies sleep during the winter without any provision for their nourishment, and are daily revived by the warmth of the sun, or of our fires.  These whenever they see light endeavour to approach it, having observed, that by its greater vicinity they get free from the degree of torpor, that the cold produces; and are hence induced perpetually to burn themselves in our candles:  deceived, like mankind, by the misapplication of their knowledge.  Whilst many of the subterraneous insects, as the common worms, seem to retreat so deep into the earth as not to be enlivened or awakened by