XXI EXPERIMENTS 299 



rights. She encamped permanently on the nest 

 and received the other bee each time that she 

 ventured to approach with an irritated quiver of the 

 wings in token of just indignation. The stranger 

 finally withdrew discouraged, and instantly the 

 mason resumed work as actively as if she had not 

 undergone the chances and changes of a long 

 journey. 



Yet another word as to rights of property. 

 While a mason bee is absent it is not unusual for 

 some homeless vagabond to visit the nest, take a 

 liking to it, and set to work, sometimes at the same 

 cell, sometimes at the next, if there are several free, 

 as often happens with old nests. When the first 

 occupant returns she does not fail to drive away the 

 intruder, who always ends by getting the worst of it, 

 so lively and invincible is the real owner's sense of 

 property. Reversing the savage Prussian maxim, 

 " Strength before right," here right comes before 

 strength ; otherwise the constant retreat of the 

 intruder would be quite inexplicable, since the 

 latter's strength is in no way inferior to that of the 

 real owner. If she has less audacity it must come 

 from not feeling braced by the sovereign strength 

 of being right, which decides among equals, even 

 in the brute creation. 



The second of my two travellers did not appear, 

 either on the day when the first came, nor later. 

 I decided to make another experiment — this time 

 with five subjects. Place of starting and arrival, 

 distance and hours, were the same. I found three 

 at the nests on the following day ; two were missing. 



It is therefore quite clear that Chalicodoma 



