9 
Have Bees A CoLour SENSE? 38" 
“The Wells of the Rees,’’ but they lie in such a hollow it was 
not possible to get a satisfactory photograph. 
Have Brees a Cotour SENSE? By J. T. Roppa, Eastbourne. 
The writer of the paper had been experimenting, and his study 
of the subject seemed to confirm the results of Lord Avebury’s 
experiments, described as follows :—In order, then, to test the 
power of bees to appreciate colour, I placed some honey on a 
slip of glass, and put the glass on coloured paper. For instance, 
I put some honey in this manner on a piece of blue paper, and 
when a bee had made several journeys, and thus became accus- 
tomed to the blue colour, I placed some more honey in the same 
manner on orange paper about a foot away. Then, during one 
of the absences of the bee, I transposed the two colours, leaving 
the honey itself in the same place as before. The bee returned 
as usual to the place where she had been accustomed to find 
the honey; but, though it was still there, she did not alight, but 
paused for a moment, and then dashed straight away to the blue 
paper. No one who saw my bee at that moment could have 
had the slightest doubt of her power of distinguishing blue from 
orange. Again, having accustomed a bee to come to honey on 
blue paper, I ranged in a row other supplies of honey on glass 
slips placed over paper of other colours—yellow, orange, red, 
green, black, and white. Then I continually transposed the 
coloured paper, leaving the honey on the same spots ; but the bee 
always flew to the blue paper, wherever it might be. 
I have received several replies from able experts expressing the 
view that bees may have visited the blue paper laden with honey in 
preference to other colours in Lord Avebury’s experiments. I 
have found but few experts who have made experiments with 
different coloured flowers, so as to enable them to give an 
absolute decision. All the experiments are fully described in 
“Ants, Bees, and Wasps,’’ “On the Senses, Instincts, and In- 
telligence of Animals,’’ by the Right Hon. Sir John Lubbock, 
meet. F.R.S., M.P., F-L.S., D.C.L., LL.D. Also in his reply 
to Professor Platean in “The Linnean Societies Journal ’’— 
Botany, Vol. 33—“ On the attraction of Flowers for Insects,’’ 
read 4 Nov., 1897. 
These experiments are so very conclusive and coincide 
