More Enquiries into Mason-bees 



during the rest of the evening. Total: four 

 home, out of ten. 



The 4th of May is a very bright, calm, 

 warm day, weather highly propitious for my 

 experiments. I take fifty Chalicodomse 

 marked with blue. The distance to be travel- 

 led remains the same. I make the first ro- 

 tation after carrying my insects a few hun- 

 dred steps in the direction opposite to that 

 which I finally take; in addition, three rota- 

 tions on the road; a fifth rotation at the place 

 where they are set free. If they do not lose 

 their bearings this time, It will not be for lack 

 of twisting and turning. I begin to open my 

 screws of paper at twenty minutes past nine. 

 It Is rather early, for which reason my Bees, 

 on recovering their liberty, remain for a mo- 

 ment undecided and lazy; but, after a short 

 sun-bath on a stone where I place them, they 

 take wing. I am sitting on the ground, facing 

 the south, with Serlgnan on my left and 

 Plolenc on my right. When the flight Is not 

 too swift to allow me to perceive the direction 

 taken, I see my released captives disappear 

 to my left. A few, but only a few, go south; 

 two or three go west, or to right of me. I do 

 not speak of the north, against which I act 



93 



