MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 267 



they use their eyes have been given. I will here 

 add another which seems worth recording. On 

 May 18, 191 1, a lapidarius queen from one of my 

 artificial domiciles was seen visiting a bunch of 

 bluebells that had been placed on the sill outside 

 the kitchen window. A similar bunch of bluebells 

 was standing on a table inside the closed window 

 of my study. The queen several times came round 

 to my study window and persistently beat against 

 the glass in her endeavour to reach the flowers 

 inside. This incident shows how humble-bees note 

 the kind of situation in which their favourite plants 

 grow, and how quickly they learn to search for them 

 there. 



No one who has watched humble-bees gathering 

 food can doubt that they know and distinguish the 

 flowers by their colours rather than by the scent of 

 the nectar. 



They know where all the clumps of their 

 favourite flowers are situated, and may often be 

 seen paying a round of visits to groups of white- 

 dead-nettle and hedge-woundwort. Not only this, 

 but they frequently remember the position of each 

 plant and even of each floret, for I have often 

 observed 'them travelling from one half- hidden 

 floret to another with the swiftness and assurance 

 of familiarity. 



Under ordinary circumstances, whether she is 

 in or out of the nest, a humble-bee that is in an 

 animated state, that is, whose abdomen is expanding 

 and contracting, always shows signs of conscious- 



