COMMUNAL LIFE 



that the conditions were much more favorable with our 

 present subjects, we thought it would be a good plan to 

 test their knowledge of the spectrum. Providing six 

 sheets of stiff paper two feet square, colored respectively 

 red, blue, green, pink, and two shades of yellow, and cut- 

 ting a circular hole four and one half inches in diameter 

 in the centre of each, we began our experiments by pla- 

 cing the red paper over the nest so that the entrance was 

 clearly exposed. The outgoing wasps dashed upward 

 without noticing it, but great was the confusion among 

 the homecomers. Thrown out of their reckoning, they 

 clamored about us in ever increasing swarms. Like 

 Homer's wasps, 



" All rise in arms and with a general cry 

 Assert their domes and buzzing progeny," 



and a crisis (for us) was approaching, when one, a pioneer 

 of thought, determined to go into the hole, which did not 

 look like the right hole, although it was where the right 

 hole ought to be; and so potent is example that one by 

 one the others followed. Three hours later they had 

 become accustomed to the change, and went in and out 

 as usual. 



They had noticed the paper ; that was plain enough, 

 but did they notice the redness? To test this, we left 

 things as they were for two days, and then substituted 

 5 



