350 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



evening- before the swarm came these scouts invariably disappeared; 

 on the morrow the swarm invariably came and made its way di- 

 rectly into the chosen hive w^ithout hesitation. All efforts to drive 

 them into other hives or to cluster them on near-by trees were un- 

 availing-. These incidents were so fully verified by daily observation 

 that we could predict with much accuracy the coming of the swarm 

 by the preliminary actions of the scout bees. These remarkable cir- 

 cumstances afforded one of the most interesting experiences of that 

 summer's work in our apiary, and were the subject of many long" 

 and speculative conversations during the summer evenings. Certain 

 facts finally came to be well proven to us, namely: 



1. Bees about to swarm do frequently send out scouting par- 

 ties to locate and prepare a home for the swarm. 



2. Such scouting parties make the necessary preparation and 

 lead the swarm with directness to the home chosen. 



o. All ordinary efforts to cluster the bees or to divert them 

 from the home so selected are futile. 



4. Observations of the action of these scout bees indicate that 

 their coming is not accidental, but that they are following a delib- 

 erately chosen line of conduct and thoroughly understand their bus- 

 iness, and as a corollary: such forethought and preparedness in hu- 

 mans could only come as the result of intelligent thought ; hence 

 by all rules of comparative psychology these bees must exercise a 

 high order of intelligence and reasoning power. 



KEFIiEX THEORV INSUFFICIENT. 



It is submitted that the theory of reflex action can have no fully 

 conclusive place in such phenomena as these we have recounted. 

 Universal testimony indicates that the instinct of domesticated bees 

 leads them to cluster when swarming, relying on their provident 

 master to provide for them a home and introduce them to it. While 

 the scouting practice may be far more general than we now suppose, 

 it certainly is not the normal habit of bees such as would lead 

 directly to the specialization of reflex nerve centers. Here then is a 

 problem which can be only intelligently considered through the 

 medium of comparative psychology. We cannot enter into the con- 

 sciousness of a bee or a horse or a dog, nor can we fathom the 

 depths of their thinking save by analogy ; we can only compare their 

 actions wnth what we know of human thought and action under an- 

 alogous conditions. By these standards of comparison, (and they 

 are those of the world of science), we may be enabled to enter into 

 a new understanding of the bee and its life. Its common habits are 

 comparatively well known, but the thousand and one perplexing 

 things which are done by these busy creatures which show forth 

 originality and forceful directness of intelligence can no longer be 

 explained away by such terminology as "reflexes" or "instinct." 



