EXPERIMENTS ON COLOR-VISION OF THE HONEY BEE, 26l 



honey bee; but, by means of simple experiments, to throw some 

 light upon the question "Can bees distinguish color 



DESCRIPTION OF Tin; Kxri KIMKNTS. 



The following experiments were performed in a large held just 

 \\<-i "i ( '!". illon Park, St. Louis, Mo. The \\hite sweet elover 

 Mclilntiis alba Lam.), with its long raivme- uf white papiliona- 

 ceoiH llower-,, was abundant in den^-e pan -In--; luit there were a 

 t-\\ vacant places in the field. Forajn- bee- \\ere \i-itin- this 

 white meliloi in large numbers. 



Series I. (July 12, 2 P.M. . 



The discs used in this scries o!" experiment- \\en- cut I'nnn 

 colored cardboard, and each was six centimeters in diameter. 



I \ri imiKNT I. / placed six discs of red cardboard on the top 



that had been erected in the midst of a patch of wlii.'' 

 clover. The rods were so adjusted that the top of each was about 

 <i n /err/ with the tops of the weeds. Six similar discs were attached, 

 nt ii : heights, to the branches of the weeds. Honey was />/.. 



mi nil nl ///or i/iscs. 



Mure 1 1). in an hour passed by and no response was made to 



the-e di-es by the bees; but both Hies and wasps visited them. 



Hie \\eeils were lull of bees that were continuous!) living to 



and !i<> in tin- immediate vicinity of these artilaets with their 



eopimi- >iippl\ <>f honey. Were the odor of honey alone sufficient 



MI r. iet l>ee- reilexlv, ilu-e bees should have been attracted 



e.nl\. Alter \\.iitiiu h.ilt an hour, I decided to force the bees 



to .ttteiitl to m\ artil.i' 



EXPERIMENT 2. .1 . :!>tured in a wide-month bottle and 



tin- bottle, with the cork >ted over one of the red <li*i 



experiment i, until th, <->pped upon the disc; the bottle 



then rennn-eii. This ;.<;. v tried with six ditjerent bees. 



Ill e.ich Case tile bee ,il\\ ,i\ - ,i~< flldt d to the top (t the but I le 



.mil .utempteil to escape. After sc\ - eral futile effort ^ it \\ould 

 drop, either l>\ .u idem or from exhaii-tion, upon the di-e. At 

 that moment, 1 al\\.i\- reiimx ed tin bottk-. Immediately the 

 liee \\oiild lea\ e ne\ er to return. Some of the I M i S I ell into the 

 hone\ ; but, e\en ill that case, the\ did not re-turn. 



