The Life of the Bee 



bee, brought her to my study, set her on 

 the comb, and marked her while she was 

 feeding. 



When satisfied, she flew away and re- 

 turned to the hive. I followed, saw her 

 pass over the surface of the crowd, plunge 

 her head into an empty cell, disgorge her 

 honey, and prepare to set forth again. At 

 the door of the hive I had placed a glass 

 box, divided by a trap into two compart- 

 ments. The bee flew into this box; and 

 as she was alone, and no other bee seemed 

 to accompany or follow her, I imprisoned 

 her and left her there. I then repeated 

 the experiment on twenty different bees 

 in succession. When the marked bee 

 reappeared alone, I imprisoned her as I 

 had imprisoned the first. But eight of 

 them came to the threshold of the hive 

 and entered the box accompanied by two 

 or three friends. By means of the trap 

 I was able to separate the marked bee 

 170 



