XXII AN EXCHANGE OF NESTS 307 



over the impression left by the pebble which I had 

 carried away. These sudden flights, prompt returns, 

 and obstinate examinations of the empty place, were 

 repeated very many times before the mason bee 

 could believe her nest was gone. She certainly must 

 have seen it in its new position, for sometimes she 

 flew only a few inches above it, but she did not care 

 about it. For her it only represented the nest of 

 another bee. 



Often the experiment ends without so much as 

 a visit to the stone carried three or four yards away ; 

 the bee departs and does not return. If the distance 

 be less — say a yard — sooner or later she alights on 

 the pebble on which her nest is built. She will visit 

 the cell which she was making or storing a little while 

 earlier, plunge in her head several times, examine 

 the surface of the stone narrowly, and after much 

 hesitation return to search over the original spot. 

 The nest, which is no longer in its right place, is 

 altogether abandoned, though it be but a yard away. 

 Vainly does the bee alight on it ; she cannot 

 recognise it as hers. I convinced myself of this by 

 finding it several days later in just the same state as 

 when I moved it. The cell, half filled with honey, 

 was still open, allowing the ants to pillage it ; the 

 cell in process of construction was unfinished, with- 

 out a single new course of mortar. Of course the 

 bee may have returned, but she had not resumed 

 her work. The displaced abode was abandoned for 

 ever. 



I shall not deduce the strange paradox that a 

 bee, capable of returning home from a great distance, 

 is yet incapable of finding it a yard off; the in- 



