680 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doe. 



The study of the behavior of animals is not easy. I am well aware 

 that many persons think that they could not want an easier task 

 than lo study the habits of the- bee, but there are difficulties which 

 make such work very trying and unsatisfactory. 



In the first place, it is often hard to s» e just what a bee is doing. 

 Let us take an example what happens when we shake the bees from 

 a frame in front of the hive entrance. In a short time a few bees 

 nearest the entrance turn their heads toward the opening and begin 

 to fan their wings; others soon do the same, and before long almost 

 every bee is fanning as if its very life depended on it. Gradually 

 they begin to move toward the entrance and enter the hive. Every 

 bee-keeper has seen this repeatedly, especially when hiving a swarm, 

 but how many could tell what is going on among the bees. This 

 action has been referred to as the "joyful hum" of the bees as 

 expressive of their pleasure at finding again the hive in which they 

 belong. Others have said that the noise of those nearest the hive 

 is heard by the bees farther awaj', and they know Avhere the colony 

 is located. Whether bees can hear or not is a question which need 

 not be discussed here, but these conclusions are inaccurate because 

 the observations are incomplete. If you will carefully notice this 

 particular action at the next opportunity you will see that the 

 abdomen is raised to an angle of about forty-five degrees and that 

 the last segment is bent down exposing a light yellow strip between 

 it and the next anterior segment. On this yellow area there ap- 

 pears a glistening drop of some fluid and when the bee begins to 

 fan a verv peculiar odor is easilv detected even bv the human 

 nose. Bees are, as is well known, governed largely by scent and 

 this particular action consists in the fanning back of the odor pro- 

 duced by this liquid. The difficulty in earlier observations was that 

 the whole attitude and action was not observed, and consequently 

 the conclusions were incorrect. It is not so much because this 

 is hard to see, but because the observers were satisfied with a 

 partial observation, that we long remained ignorant of this im- 

 portant habit. We pride ourselves on our ability to see things, yet 

 any person who has investigated the subject knows how difficult 

 it is to get two people to tell the same story concerning any obser- 

 vation; and this is not because their eyes do not see alike, but be- 

 cause they perceive only part of the event and let their imaginations 

 fill up the gaps. In no place is this human fault more noticeable 

 than in work on observation of habits, and as a result I feel free 

 to say that this is one of the most difficult problems in the study 

 of animals. 



A second difficulty, is that of giving reasons for the things ob- 

 served. We are not satisfied with mere observations of actions 

 unless we can see why they are performed, for otherwise the action 

 is meaningless. Since the bee is constructed on a plan so totally 

 different from ourselves, we often are unable to interpret the habits 

 and doubtless many important things are still unknown for this 

 reason. 



A third difficulty, and one to which too much attention cannot 

 be called, is the difficulty of distinguishing between verifiable and 

 unverifiable truth. As an example, let us take the action of the 

 worker bees towards the queen. The actual observation is this: 

 The workers surround the queen on the comb and 'touch her with 



