More Enquiries into Mason-bees 



before turning round to return, to put the In- 

 sects in a circular box with an axle which could 

 be made to revolve very rapidly first In 

 one direction and then in another, so as to 

 destroy for a time all sense of direction in the 

 insects, I have sometimes Imagined that ani- 

 mals may feel In which direction they were at 

 the first start carried." 



This method of experimenting seemed to 

 me very ingeniously conceived. Before going 

 wect, I walk eastwards. In the darkness of 

 their paper-bags, the mere fact that I am mov- 

 ing them gives my prisoners a sense of the di- 

 rection in which I am taking them. If nothing 

 happened to disturb this first Impression, 

 the insect would be guided by It In returning. 

 This would explain the homing of my Mason- 

 bees carried to a distance of two or three miles 

 amid strange surroundings. But, when the 

 insects have been sufficiently Impressed by 

 their conveyance to the east, there comes the 

 rapid twirl, first this way round, then that. 

 Bewildered by all these revolutions first in one 

 direction and then in another, the insect does 

 not know that I have turned round and re- 

 mains under Its original Impression. I am 



75 



