More Enquiries into Mason-bees 



fore weighing the arguments for and against, 

 I feel doubt creeping in upon me with regard 

 to what I have seen. Was It really the mag- 

 netic Influence that disturbed my Bee so 

 strangely? When she struggled and kicked 

 on the floor, fighting wildly with both legs 

 and wings, when she fled in terror, was she 

 under the sway of the magnet fastened on her 

 back? Can my appliance have thwarted the 

 guiding Influence of the terrestrial currents 

 on her nervous system? Or was her distress 

 merely the result of an unwonted harness? 

 This Is what remains to be seen and that with- 

 out delay. 



I construct a new apparatus, but provide it 

 with a short straw In place of the magnet. 

 The insect carrying It on Its back rolls on the 

 ground, kicks and flings herself about like the 

 first, until the Irksome contrivance Is removed, 

 taking with It a part of the fur on the thorax. 

 The straw produces the same effects as the 

 magnet, in other words, magnetism had no- 

 thing to do with what happened. My inven- 

 tion, In both cases alike. Is a cumbrous tackle 

 of which the Bee tries to rid herself at once 

 by every possible means. To look to her for 

 normal actions so long as she carries an ap- 

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