142 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



enough. If, on the contrary, the others are sent, the case 

 will be very different. To test this, Sir John kept honey in a 

 given place for some time, in order to satisfy himself that it 

 would not readily be found by the bees, and then brought a 

 bee to the honey, marking it so that he could ascertain 

 whether it brought others or sent them, the latter, of course, 

 implying a much higher order of intelligence and power of 

 communication. After trying the experiment several times 

 with single bees and obtaining only negative results, Sir John 

 Lubbock procured one of Marriott's observatory-hives, which 

 he placed in his sitting-room. The bees had free access to 

 the open air; but there was also a small side or postern door, 

 which could be opened at pleasure, and which led into the 

 room. This enabled him to feed and mark any particular 

 bees ; and he recounted a number of experiments, from which 

 it appeared that comparatively few bees found their own way 

 through the postern, while of those which did so the great 

 majority flew to the window, and scarcely any found the 

 honey for themselves. Those, on the contrary, which were 

 taken to the honey, passed backwards and forwards between 

 it and the hive, making, on an average, five journeys in the 

 hour. Sir John had also in a similar manner watched a 

 number of marked wasps, with very similar results. These, 

 and other observations of the same tendency, appear to show 

 that, even if bees and wasps have the power of informing one 

 another when they discover a store of good food, at any rate 

 they do not habitually do so ; and this seemed to him a 

 strong reason for concluding that they are not in the habit of 

 communicating facts. When once wasps had made themselves 

 thoroughly acquainted with their way, their movements were 

 most regular. They spent three minutes supplying themselves 

 with honey, and then flew straight to the nest, returning after 

 an interval of about ten minutes, and thus making, like the 

 bees, about five journeys an hour. During September they 

 began in the morning at about six o'clock, and later when the 

 mornings began to get cold, and continued to work without 

 intermission till dusk. They made, therefore, rather more than 

 fifty journeys in the day. Sir John had also made some 

 experiments on the behaviour of bees introduced into strange 

 hives, which seemed to contradict the ordinary statement that 

 strange bees are always recognized and attacked. Another 



