

i.] BEES AND COLOURS. 13 



In fine weather bees visit often more than twenty 

 flowers in a minute, and so carefully do they economise 

 the sunny hours, that in flowers with several nectaries 

 if they find one dry, they do not waste time by ex- 

 amining the others on the same plant. Mr. Darwin 

 watched carefully certain flowers, and satisfied him- 

 self that each one was visited by bees at least thirty 

 times in a day. The result is, that even where flowers 

 are very numerous as, for instance, on heathy plains 

 and clover fields every one is visited during the day. 

 Mr. Darwin has carefully examined a large number of 

 flowers in such cases, and found that every single one 

 had been visited by bees. 



In order 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 

 become accustomed 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, 1 ranged in a row other supplies of 



