The Life of the Bee 



[43] 



This power of appropriation may well 

 be considered to overstep the limit of 

 instinct ; and indeed there can be nothing 

 more arbitrary than the distinction we 

 draw between instinct and intelligence 

 properly so-called. Sir John Lubbock, 

 whose observations on ants, bees, and 

 wasps are so interesting and so personal, 

 is reluctant to credit the bee, from the 

 moment it forsakes the routine of its 

 habitual labour, with any power of discern- 

 ment or reasoning. This attitude of his 

 may be due in some measure to an uncon- 

 scious bias in favour of the ants, whose 

 ways he has more specially noted ; for the 

 entomologist is always inclined to regard 

 that insect as the more intelligent to which 

 he has more particularly devoted himself, 

 and we have to be on our guard against 

 this little personal predilection. As a 

 i44 



