INSTINCT 155 



food gatherers the location of the find in reference to the 

 position of the sun by the direction of the short run she 

 makes between each full turn, and she gives the distance by 

 the number of times the dance cycle is repeated. If she runs 

 straight up the honeycomb between turns, she indicates 

 that the foragers should fly directly toward the sun to find 

 the flower. If in this dance she makes 9 or 10 complete cycles 

 in the short period (usually about 15 seconds) during which 

 she "speaks" at any one place, she indicates that the find 

 is about 100 yards away. After having completed the proper 

 number of turns needed to indicate the distance, the dancer 

 will move to another part of the hive and repeat the per- 

 formance. Von Frisch found that the number of com- 

 plete cycles diminished in proportion to the distance so that 

 at something over 1,000 yards there were only four com- 

 pleted cycles, and at distances more than 6,000 yards there 

 were only two. If the dancer runs straight down the comb, 

 she indicates that the food gatherers must fly directly away 

 from the sun. If the dancer heads off to the left of the verti- 

 cal, say 60 degrees, then the find is 60 degrees to the left of 

 the sun; if she heads downward 120 degrees from the verti- 

 cal, then the find is 120 degrees to the right of the sun, and 

 so on. Von Frisch found that there was surprising accuracy 

 in this language of direction; workers who interpreted it 

 were seldom off more than 1 5 degrees. ] 



Moreover, von Frisch found that if he watched the 

 dances of incoming scout bees which were going to a fixed 

 feeding place over a period of several hours, the direction 

 of the straight part of the dances was not constant but 

 changed with the earth's rotation— in other words, kept 

 pace with the sun. In fact, it was this observation that led 

 him to the conclusion that the dances indicated the direction 

 of the feeding place with reference to the sun. It must be 

 remembered that under normal circumstances the bee enters 

 a hive that is completely dark. She cannot perceive the di- 

 rection of the sun once she enters; but somehow nature has 



