CHAP. XV.] IMAGINATION AND VOLITION. 245 



recovered ; I fed her ; she went quietly away to her nest as usual, 

 and returned after the usual absence. The next morning this wasp 

 was the first to visit the honey." 



After what has been already stated, the reader will not 

 be surprised to learn that the careful enquiries of Sir John 

 Lubbock give no support whatever to the supposition that 

 the Social Insects have a kind of language of their own. 

 He found no evidence of their possessing a power of com- 

 municating with one another by means of their antennae, 

 or otherwise, so as to enable them " to narrate facts or 

 describe localities." His enquiries were carefully directed 

 and often repeated, with the view of throwing decisive 

 light upon this question ; and, in opposition to the state- 

 ments of Hiiber and Dujardin, they seem, as he says, "to 

 show that wasps and bees do not convey to one another 

 information as to food which they may have discovered." 

 He adds : " No doubt when one wasp has discovered and 

 is visiting a supply of syrup, others are apt to come too, 

 but I believe that they merely follow one another. If they 

 communicated the fact considerable numbers would at once 

 make their appearance ; but I have never found this to be 

 the case." The experiments and observations made by 

 this skilful investigator with Ants, with the view of throw- 

 ing light upon this same question, have been even more 

 exhaustive and carefully planned, and have led him to the 

 following conclusion* : " When an Ant has discovered a 

 store of food and others gradually flock to it, they are 

 guided, in some cases by sight, while in others they 

 track one another by scent." 



Bees and Wasps again have been imagined by some to 



be in the habit of making known their Emotions to one 



another by means of sounds, which would of course imply 



that they possess a sense of Hearing. As previously 



* LOG. cit, vol. xii. p. 485. 



