ECOLOGY 283 



air to hold the insects to the burnt-tree type of reaction. Even so, why the 

 difference in irritability of the several varieties of bees? 



The ability of bees to make long journeys — two to four miles — and re- 

 turn unerringly to their own hive is remarkable. The feat becomes more 

 interesting when we see the bee yard containing 50 to 100 hives, all made 

 as nearly alike as modern machinery and paint can make them, and packed 

 so closely that there is just room for the beekeeper to pass between them. 

 But interest culminates when we learn that this skill is the result of careful 

 training. A young bee first emerging from the hive suns herself on the 

 front porch. Later she flies out a foot or two and buzzes about facing the 

 hive. Then she goes farther and farther, still facing the hive — say to ten 

 or fifteen feet. Finally she makes a real collecting trip. 



Last summer I placed a comb of bees in an observation hive, fastened 

 them in, placed them in the cellar to cool off. They settled down at once. 

 Twenty-four hours later I found they were humming in a tone that indi- 

 cates mild excitation. (One can tell what a bee is likely to do next by the 

 tone of her humming, just about as well as you can predict the next act 

 of a dog or a person by the tone of his voice.) I took my bees out to a new 

 location and opened the little doorway. It was six p. m., just growing dusk. 

 In a few minutes one bee found the open door. She crawled out, made 

 sure of her freedom, and then stood by the door and buzzed till you couldn't 

 see her wings. Soon another came, and she buzzed too. Then they all made 

 for the door and poured out in a stream, mostly taking wing at once. For 

 several minutes they made quite a swarm within 3 or 4 feet of the little 

 hive, milling about in the air, all facing the hive. Then they spread out 

 farther and farther, to 100 feet or more. I thought they must all be gone. 

 But while I thought it, the crowd gathered again by the door, and all poured 

 in as eagerly as they came out before. In a trice all were in and quiet. Had 

 they been studying the location? Ordinarily, when collecting, they run 

 out of the hive and take wing without a look behind; and returning, swoop 

 out of mid-air directly into the doorway. 



When it is necessary to move a colony, one should place a board or net 

 in front of the hive in its new location, so the bees will be compelled to take 

 notice as they come out. The obstruction can be removed after a day or 

 two. There is no doubt that bees can learn to find a certain location, both 

 for their home and for their collecting grounds. A good collecting ground 

 is revisited until its resources are exhausted. Then a new place is sought 

 and similarly worked. Ability to do this is essential to the life of the bee. 



I do not see in this any general ability to learn. It is only an adaptation to 

 the peculiar life of bees — gathering nectar from the successive fields of 

 flowers from season to season — and the change of abode when swarming. 

 It does not indicate any ability to learn in any other realm of knowledge. 



When bees are much agitated by a disturbance in the hive or by the 



