186 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



their valuable time, and perhaps to allow them to 

 secure the nectar from those blossoms which are too 

 narrow to permit their entering within. The behaviour 

 of the bees themselves supplies some evidence to show 

 that this supposition is true. For if one of these 

 perforating bees is watched with a little care, it will 

 be seen that it does not go direct to the place where it 

 intends to perforate, but rather reaches the base of 

 the corolla by an indirect route. It always goes first 

 to the open mouth of the flower, then runs down 

 along the outside of the corolla until it reaches the 

 point where it is accustomed to cut through. Why 

 does it act in this way ? Why does not the bee go 

 direct to the base of the corolla ? Why does it go first 

 to the mouth of the flower ? The procedure seems a 

 useless one, and certainly involves the bee in addi- 

 tional labour and wastes its precious time. I think 

 there is something to be learnt from the act. I believe 

 we see in it a relic of the past, a trace of that older 

 instinct when the bee was accustomed to sip the 

 nectar by entering the interior of the flower. The 

 bee had then of course to go first to the mouth of the 

 blossom, then crawl down the inside of the funnel in 

 order to reach the nectar. But now, although the 

 instinct has partly changed and many bees secure 

 their nectar by cutting through the base of the petals, 

 yet the relic of the older instinct still remains; the 

 bees still persist in going first to the mouth of the 

 blossom and then run down the outside of the funnel, 

 and at length reach the point of perforation by a 

 longer and indirect route. 



The act is a kind of fossil instinct ; the useless 

 remnant of what is gone. And it is in these relics of 



