COLOR VISION 353 



In a second set of experiments Lubbock trained a bee 

 to come to a lawn for honey placed on a piece of colorless 

 glass. He then procured several similar pieces of glass of 

 different colors, arranged them on the lawn so that they 

 were all about one foot apart, and put a drop of honey on 

 each. After the bee returned it was frequently disturbed, 

 so that it was compelled to sip honey several times, either 

 over the same color or over different ones, before it left for 

 the hive. The order in which it visited the different colors 

 was recorded, and every time the bee left for the hive the 

 relative position of all the glass plates was changed. 



Many different series of observations were made in this 

 way under various conditions; the results in all are however 

 essentially the same. I shall therefore present only a por- 

 tion of one series. In this series (1895, p. 307) the bee came 

 first to the blue 31 times, to the green 10, to the orange 11, 

 colorless 5, red 14, white 19, and to the yellow 9 times. 

 This shows that the blue is visited much oftener than any 

 other color, although the bee was trained to get honey 

 from the colorless piece of glass. 



Graber (1884, pp. 167-174) obtained similar results in 

 comparing the effect of red with that of blue by means of 

 a different method. He inclosed the bees in a box one 

 half of which was illuminated with red, the other half with 

 blue light. In some experiments the blue was much 

 brighter than the red, in others the red was brighter than 

 the blue. In every test a majority of the individuals 

 inclosed collected in the blue. 



The first set of experiments led Lubbock to conclude 

 " that bees possess the power to distinguish colours " 

 (p. 302) ; and the second, that they prefer blue. 



Perhaps the most interesting of Lubbock's results is the 

 demonstration that honey bees can be trained to select 

 any given color. This shows that they can in some way 

 distinguish color and that the different rays and combina- 

 tions of rays must have a specific effect on them; but it 

 does not prove that they have color vision, for color-blind 



