BEES AND WASPS SENSE OF DIRECTION. 145 



substance such as glass. But to this latter point we shall 

 presently have occasion to return. 



Next we must adduce evidence to show that in way- 

 finding the l sense of direction ' in bees appears to 

 be largely supplemented by observation of particular 

 objects. 



Sir John Lubbock observes : ' I never found bees to 

 return if brought any considerable distance at once. By 

 taking them, however, some twenty yards each time they 

 came to the honey, I at length trained them to come to 

 my room ; ' that is to say, bees require to learn their way 

 little by little before they can return to a store of honey 

 which they may have been fortunate enough to find ; their 

 general sense of direction is not in itself a sufficient 

 guide. This, at least, is the case where, as in the experi- 

 ments in question, the bees are carried from the hive to 

 the store of honey (here a distance of less than 200 

 yards) : possibly if they had found the honey by them- 

 selves flying towards it, and so probably taking note of 

 objects by the way, one journey might have proved suffi- 

 cient to teach them the way. But, whether or not this 

 would have been the case, the fact that when carried they 

 required also to be taught the way piece by piece, is con- 

 clusive proof that their sense of direction alone is not 

 sufficient to enable them to traverse a route of 200 yards 

 a second time. 



The same result is brought out by other experiment 3 

 conducted on a different plan, though not apparently 

 with this object. ' My room is square, with two windows 

 on the south-west side, where the hive was placed, and 

 one on the south-east.' Besides the ordinary entrance 

 from outside, the hive had a small postern door opening 

 into the room. 



At 6.50 a bee came out through the little postern door. After 

 she had fed, she evidently did not know her way home ; 

 so I put her back. 



At 7.10 she came out again. I again fed her and put her 

 ^ back. 



At 10.15 she came out a third time; and again I had to put 

 her back. 



