422 HEAEING IN BEES. 



a chair on the lawn, 5 yards in front of the drawing- 

 room window. The first bee found the honey in 5^ 

 minutes. I left it so for three-quarters of an hour, 

 and then brought the honey and the musical box into 

 the house and put them just inside the window but out 

 of sight. The box was kept playing for three-quarters 

 of an hour, during the whole of which a few bees kept 

 hovering round the chair ; but not a single bee found 

 the honey, or even was attracted by the music into the 

 room. I then took the honey and put it again on the 

 chair outside. In less than 5 minutes nine bees had 

 settled on it. I then brought it back into the room, 

 and put it, with the bees on it, where it had stood pre- 

 viously. The bees fed, returned to the hive, and came 

 back again to the honey as usual, showing that they 

 had not the slightest objection to enter the house. 



I then took the honey and the musical box down 

 to the hives. Immediately {i.e. about a yard) in front 

 of my hives is a low wall ; and I put the box and the 

 honey on the far side of the wall, so that they were 

 something less than 4 yards distant from the hive, but 

 of course not directly visible. I then kept the music 

 going for two hours, from 1.30 to 3.30 P.M., but not a 

 bee came to the honey. 



From these experiments we are, I think, justified 

 in concluding either that the bees did not hear the 

 music, or that, though they had been feeding close to 

 the music, eight days was not a long enough period 

 to suggest to them that there could possibly be any 

 connection between the honey and the musical box. 



To decide between these two alternatives, I moved 

 the musical box (without setting it to play) and honey 

 to another part of the lawn about 15 yards from the 

 first, and })ut an equal quantity of honey on a similar 

 piece of glass at about the same distance both from the 

 musical box and from the spot where the box had pre- 

 viously been. In half an hour there were several bees 



