HOMING FACULTY. 219 



of 144. This is not a very large proportion. Out of the whole number no less than 97 

 appear to have lost their way. May not the 47 have found theirs by sight or by accident? 

 Instinct, however inferior to reason, has the advantage of being generally unerring. When 

 2 out of 3 bees went wrong, we may, I think, safely dismiss the idea of instinct. Moreover, 

 the distance from home was only \ x /% to 2 miles. Now, bees certainly know the country 

 for some distance around their home; how far they generally forage I believe we have 

 no certain information, but it seems not unreasonable to suppose that if they once came 

 within a mile of their nest they would find themselves within ken of some familiar landmark. 

 Now, if we suppose that 150 bees are let out 2 miles from home and that they flew away 

 at random, distributing themselves equally in all directions, a little consideration will 

 show that some 25 of them would find themselves within a mile of home and consequently 

 would know where they were. I have never myself experimented with Chalicodomas, 

 but I have discovered that if a hive-bee is taken to a distance, she behaves as a pigeon 

 does under similar circumstances; that is to say, she flies round and round, gradually 

 rising higher and higher and enlarging her circle, until I suppose her strength fails or she 

 comes within sight of some known object. Again, if the bees had returned by a sense of 

 direction, they would have been back in a few minutes. To fly \Yi or 2 miles would not 

 take 5 minutes. One bee out of the 147 did it in that time, but the others took 1, 2, 3, or 

 even 5 hours. Surely, then, it is reasonable to suppose that these lost some time before 

 they came in sight of any object known to them. 



"Fabre observes that the great majority of his Chalicodomas at once took the direction 

 home. He confesses, however, that it is not always easy to follow bees with the eye. 

 Admitting the fact, it seems to me far from impossible that the bees knew where they were; 

 and at any rate, this does not seem so improbable that we should be driven to admit the 

 existence of a new sense, which we ought to assume only as a last resource. Moreover, 

 Fabre himself says: 'When the rapidity of flight permitted me to note the direction taken,' 

 which seems to imply doubt. Indeed, some years previously he had made a similar experi- 

 ment with the same species, but taking them direct to the point rather over 2 miles from 

 the nest and not whirling them round his head. In this case some went in one direction, 

 some in another. It certainly would be remarkable if bees which were taken direct missed 

 their way, while those which were whirled round and round went straight home. Moreover, 

 it appears, after all, as a matter of fact, that they did not fly straight home. If they had 

 done so, they would have been back in 3 or 4 minutes, whereas they took far longer. Even 

 then, if they started in the right direction, it is clear that they did not adhere to it. 



"Romanes's experiments, likewise, as he himself says, entirely confirm the opinion I 

 have ventured to express, that there is no sufficient evidence among insects of anything 

 which can justly be called a 'sense of direction.'" 



Forel (1900, 1908:72, 215) also emphasized the discrepancy between 

 Fabre's results and his conclusions. 



"Instead of attributing these facts to an instinct of direction, I explain them as follows: 

 aerial insects and aerial beings in general, soaring above terrestrial objects ought to have, — 

 and have, a knowledge of places very different from that of wingless ones. If we reflect 

 on the geographical coup d'oeil 'as the crow flies' that one obtains on the summit of a hillock, 

 we shall have a feeble idea of what the vision of an aerial being can be, with this difference, 

 that in the twinkling of an eye it moves and alters its horizons, which we can not do. In 

 20 minutes the Chalicodoma of Fabre had travelled over their 3 kilometers! This experi- 

 ment simply proves to me the very instructive and interesting fact that the Chalicodoma 

 knew the places within a radius of a league, at any rate. Those which did not find their 

 way were probably newly hatched and had not pushed their reconnaissances so far. 



"If a mysterious sense of direction had guided them, all that started would have returned. 

 Weismann thinks rightly that the bees, set free in this unknown and to them distasteful 

 place, would have been attracted by the sight of the hill. Once there, the oldest, those that 

 knew the surroundings best, would have found a landmark and a road. Indeed we see 

 even pigeons often go off in various directions at first. Is it not significant thus to see 

 mason-bees, placed under the same conditions, conduct themselves in miniature like 

 carrier-pigeons, without possessing however any vestibular or otolithic apparatus? The 

 circle of their knowledge of places does not appear to go beyond 4 kilometers; that of 

 highly trained pigeons appears to reach 500. There is no striking disproportion therein. 



