38 Trana. Acad. Sri. of St. Louis 



conclusively that when the position of the entrance of the 

 hive is gradually changed, either in a straight line or in 

 a circle, the bees are not disconcerted. In Strasburg, ac- 

 cording to Forel, the streets are narrow and straight. In 

 narrow straight streets, how would it be possible for bees 

 to start directly toward the hive, before reaching the 

 house-tops, unless the ex|)erimenter had selected streets 

 that pointed in the right direction? In his hive experi- 

 ment he counts as insignificant the hesitation of the bees 

 mentioned above. He noticed that flashing light by 

 means of mirrors and placing fresh paper around hives 

 caused bees to hesitate and accumulate in swarms before 

 entering, but he attributed the disturbance to the keen 

 sense of smell of bees. 



One of Bethe's own experiments militates against his 

 contention, lie conveyed a hive a long distance from 

 home and turned the bees out. The old bees returned to 

 the place from which the hive had been removed but the 

 young bees re-entered the hive in its new location. When 

 we remember that old bees on leaving a hive depart im- 

 mediately and that young bees describe circles of orienta- 

 tion, does not this indicate that the old bees followed well- 

 known landmarks to their former home and that the 

 young bees, being unfamiliar with such landmarks, were 

 guided back to the hive by newly acquired data? Then, 

 too, how can Bethe harmonize his view with the fact that 

 bees caught afield after dark remain out all night? The 

 weakness of Bethe's contention becomes even more ap- 

 parent when we consider the experimental work of those 

 whose conclusions are unlike his. 



In a school building in tlie city of Augusta, Georgia, 

 there was a schoolroom with windows on three sides. 

 On the north there were four adjacent windows, with a 



