The Colony and its Organization 35 



same. If one's knowledge of the circumstances surround- 

 ing his bees is not adequate there seems to be comfort in 

 attributing to " locality" one's failure in the application of 

 rules. 



Point of view. 



It may be worth while to extend these introductory re- 

 marks to explain the point of view held in the present dis- 

 cussion of bee activities. There are several distinct angles 

 from which one may view the actions of a colony of bees and, 

 since they lead to unreconcilable conclusions, they cannot 

 all be correct. First to be mentioned among those who 

 write concerning bees is the so-called student of nature who 

 seemingly tries to find in bees a type of intelligence even 

 higher than that possessed by man and who attributes to 

 these insects thoughts and passions to which only the poetic 

 may hope to attain. The complex colony life of bees offers 

 to such a type of mind unlimited opportunity for speculation, 

 which leads nowhere and is in fact a detriment to legitimate 

 investigation. Allied to the just mentioned enthusiasts 

 over nature are the amateur philosophers who hold up the 

 bee as a brilliant example of industry. To all such specu- 

 lative fancy, we may with profit turn our backs. 



In studying the behavior of any lower animal, there is but 

 one source to which one should go for information. This is 

 found in the actions of the animal in response to stimuli of 

 its environment. If the bee makes a visible movement in re- 

 sponse to a stimulus arising in its environment, 1 that visible 

 movement and nothing else is of value hi forming a conclu- 

 sion. If there is a movement or other response inside the 

 animal or otherwise invisible, or if the bee perceives the 

 stimulus but does not move in response, then the observer 

 has a negative result. It is frequent in bee literature to find 



1 The environmental factor may be inside or outside the hive, or even 

 inside or outside the individual bee. For example, pathogenic micro- 

 organisms or irritating foods are inside but not part of the animal and are 

 therefore environmental factors. 



