Packard.] MENTAL POWERS OF INSECTS. 3GI 



realize that the bee has a will of its own and that her will 

 acts with a promptness and decision which at once appeals to 

 the sensibilities of tlie experimenter. But bees sometimes 

 attack persons whom they seem to dislike, or cluster as it 

 were lovingly about one for whom they have some sort of 

 regard. Is not this an act of volition, of the exercise of a 

 will, added to an operation of the intellect? 



In illustration of this power of discrimination between 

 their friends and enemies, I borrow the following anecdote 

 from the Rev. J. S. AVatson's work on the " Reasoning 

 Power of Animals." 



"It may well be considered an indication of reason in 

 bees that they know, as is confidently asserted, their master, 

 or the person who chiefly attends to them. A singular state- 

 ment to this effect is given in Stedman's ' Voyage to Suri- 

 nam.' I was visited at my hut, says Mr. Stedman, whose 

 words I abridge, by a neighboring gentleman, who had no 

 sooner entered, than he leaped out again, i-oaring like a 

 madman with pain, and ran off to the river to plunge his 

 head into the water. The cause of his distress, was, that, 

 being a tall fellow, he had struck his head against a large 

 nest of wild bees which had built in the thatch. I, apprehen- 

 sive of a similar attack, withdrew immediately from the hut, 

 and ordered the slaves to demolish the bees' nest without 

 delay. They were just going to do so, when an old negro 

 came up, and declared that tlic bees would never sting me 

 personally, offering to undeigo any punisliment if one of 

 tliem ever did so. ' Massa,' said the negro, 'the^' would 

 have stung you long ago, had you been a stranger to them, 

 but, being your tenant, and allowed to l)iiil(l upon your 

 premises, they know both you and yours, and will never 

 hurt eitiier you or them.' This Mr. Stedman found to be the 

 case, for even after shaking the nest, the bees would sting 

 neither him nor his negroes. The same old negro told Mr. 

 Stedman that he had lived on an estate on which there was 



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