488 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



of finding their way home was not impaired by the dis- 

 turbing of their magnetic field. 



These experiments seem to me to prove clearly enough 

 that bees do not find their way back to their homes by a 

 magnetic sense of direction. As to how they do find their 

 way home, I agree that they have an intimate sight ac- 

 quaintance with the locality in which they are working, and 

 that they fly from one large known object to another. I have 

 never seen the muscular sense alluded to as a source of the 

 information by which the bee finds its way home. Yet this 

 sense appears to me very important as assisting the sense of 

 sight ; or it might even be that it is of equal importance with 

 sight, by which it is checked and corrected. When a bee 

 alights on the spot from which its home has been moved, on 

 missing its home it flies back to some large known object, 

 from which it seems to take its bearings, and then again 

 flies straight to the old position of the hive. I had a 

 hive on the east side of an open window, and facing it, 

 so that a bee had to fly west to get out of the window. 

 I turned the hive round to the west side of the window, 

 but still facing it. The bees leaving the hive still tried 

 to fly westward, and struck themselves against the front of 

 the hive, and lost the opening of the window, just as a 

 man will habitually turn to the right or left when he leaves 

 his house-door. As for the bees that were coming home from 

 work, when they got to the window they were hopelessly 

 lost, and hovered about the old position, although the new 

 position of the lighting-board was not 18 in. from the old. In 

 their circling flight they often struck the hive or rested on the 

 lighting-board, but that was of no assistance to them, as they 

 immediately flew off again to look or feel for their home. 

 When the hive was returned to its original position they 

 rushed in at the opening with a contented hum. These facts 

 seem to indicate that the bees are not dependent on the sense 

 of smell for finding the hive, and that their sense of sight is 

 not sufficient to guide them in new situations, and that they 

 largely depend on the muscular sense. 



To settle these points is, however, beyond my present pur- 

 pose, which was merely to accurately compute the value of the 

 suggestion that bees found their way home by a magnetic 

 sense of direction. 



If any further proof were needed that the bees do find 

 their way home by sight the following experiments would 

 furnish it. I took a hive from my laboratory after having it 

 closed all night, and put it 300 yards away in the garden. 

 I opened it at 11 o'clock on a fine sunny day. The bees 

 came out, and, apparently tempted by the fine weather, set 

 off working without taking sufficient notice of their surround- 



