PACKARD] MENTAL POWERS OF INSECTS. 3G5 



hillock, and repeatedly suffered to tumble down its side, ap- 

 parently for the sake of consolidating it by the earth which 

 each time adhered to it. During this process the pellet un- 

 luckily fell into an adjoining hole, out of which all the efforts 

 of the beetle to extricate it were in vain. After several in- 

 effectual trials, the insect repaired to an adjoining heap of 

 dung, and soon returned with three of his companions. All 

 four now applied their united strength to the pellet, and at 

 length succeeded in pushing it out, which being done the 

 three assistant beetles left the spot and returned to their 

 own quarters." 



That the bee makes a choice is seen in the perforation of 

 a flower when she cannot or will not reach the nectary by 

 walking into the corolla. The case observed by Mr. Bailey, 

 already referred to on page 202, is in point. lie observed 

 humble bees which were baffled in their attempts to find the 

 hone}'^, take a short cut and perforate the corolla with their 

 jaws. Here is an act of the will carried on under the stim- 

 ulation of the organs of smell. Now as regards the act of 

 choosing between two alternatives some bees are more intel- 

 lectual than otliers, and the fact that there is a decided dif- 

 ference between two bees in this respect is additional proof 

 that they have a reason. 



In an article on the fertilization of various flowers by in- 

 sects, in the '-Popular Science Review," Dr. Ogle refers to 

 tliis well known habit of both humble and hive bees of either 

 perforating the flowers of the bean or getting at the honey 

 by entering the mouth of the corolla. He noticed that while 

 " some bees visit the blossom in the natural way, and in so 

 doing take pollen from the anthers of one flower to the 

 stigma of the next, others avail themselves of the shorter 

 cut ; but tliat an individual bee, visiting a succession of boan 

 flowers, uniformly does one or the other. It would thus 

 appear that the habit is not an instinct, belonging by inheri- 

 tance to the whole species, but is in each case the result of 



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