486 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



(d.) I took eighteen bees to the same place in the same 

 manner, but held them between the north and south poles of 

 a strong horse-shoe magnet, which I rotated horizontally and 

 vertically during the journey. Four bees had returned within 

 two minutes, thirteen within five minutes, and the eighteen 

 within fifteen minutes. 



The bees were coming home rather better in the latter 

 experiments : this was due probably to the increasing tempera- 

 ture of the day. 



These experiments give a sufficiently clear proof of at least 

 one thing: viz., that if the bees do find their way home by 

 a magnetic sense they do not do so in the way that we 

 should. They do not take their bearings in their outward 

 journey and then reduce their traverse and set home along 

 the resultant line. If all the lines of force due to the earth's 

 magnetism are exactly the same, the experiments prove that 

 the bees do not find their way home by magnetic sense at all. 

 It is exactly as if a man lived in a uniform plain crossed by a 

 great number of parallel and exactly similar tracks. When 

 he left his home he would say, " I have crossed thirteen 

 tracks to the north, thirty-two to the east," and so on, and 

 then would be able to strike straight back home ; but if he 

 were led away from home blindfolded, so that he could not 

 count the tracks, and then given his sight, he would not be 

 able to tell in which direction his home lay. If the tracks 

 were similar, if he were led away blindfold, and if he found 

 his way back, we could say he did not find his way home by 

 sight. This is exactly what I did with the bees. I blind- 

 folded their magnetic sense, and they found their way home ; 

 so that I can say they did not do so by magnetic sense. But 

 let us suppose all the tracks across the uniform plain were 

 not similar. Suppose they increased in breadth in regular 

 succession, one being 1 in. wide, the next 2 in., the next 3 in., 

 &c, and the cross-tracks the same. Then a man would know 

 " My house is at the intersection of the track 3 ft. wide and the 

 track 9 in. wide." Now lead him away from home blindfold 

 and then set him free : no matter where he is he will return 

 to his home. Let us apply this case to the bees. Suppose 

 the lines of force due to the earth's magnetism are not all 

 exactly similar, but increase in strength in a particular 

 direction. Then the bee, no matter where it was taken, 

 would, when liberated, know what line of force it was on, 

 would know in what direction lay the line of force on which 

 its hive was, and would fly direct for that. In this sup- 

 posititious case my former experiment was completely in- 

 conclusive, because I blindfolded the magnetic sense of 

 the bees and then gave them their sight in a locality 

 with which they were perfectly acquainted. It was to meet 



