THE AMERICAJM BEE JOURNAL. 



739 



was eagerly sucked by the bees ; two 

 kept continually returning till past 

 live in the evening. 



One day, when I came home in the 

 afternpon, I found that at least a 

 hundred bees had got into my room 

 through the postern and were on the 

 window, yet not one was attracted by 

 an open jar of honey which stood in a 

 shady corner about three feet five 

 inches from the window. 



Another day (April 29, 1872), I 

 placed a saucer ot honey close to some 

 forget-me-nots, on which bees were 

 numerous and busy ; yet from 10 a. m. 

 till 6 only one bee went to the honey. 



I put some honey in a hollow in the 

 garden wall opposite myhives at 10:30 

 (this wall is about five "feet high and 

 four feet from the hives), yet the bees 

 did not find it during the whole day. 



On March 30, 1873, a line, sunshiny 

 day, when the bees were very active, 

 I placed a glass containing honey at 9 

 in the morning on the wall in front of 

 the hives ; but not a single bee went 

 to the honey the whole day. On April 

 20 I tried tiie same experiment with 

 the same result. 



September 19.— At 9:30 1 placed some 

 honey in a glass about four feet from 

 and just in front of the hive, but dur- 

 ing the whole day not a bee observed it. 



As it then occurred to me that it 

 might be suggested that there was 

 something about this honey which 

 rendered it unattractive to the bees, 

 on the following day I first i)lared it 

 again on the top of tlie wall for three 

 hours, during which not a single bee 

 came, and then moved it close to the 

 alighting-board of the hive. It re- 

 mained unnoticed for a quarter of an 

 hour, when two bees observed it, and 

 others soon followed in considerable 

 numbers. 



It is generally stated not only that 

 the bees in a hive all know one another 

 but also that they immediately recog- 

 nize and attack any intruder from 

 another hive. It is "possible that the 

 bees of a particular hive have a par- 

 ticular smell. Thus Langstroth, in 

 his interesting Treatise on the Honey 

 Bee, says, " Members of different col- 

 onies appear to recognize their hive 

 companions by the sense of smell;" 

 and I believe that if colonies are 

 sprinkled with scented syrup they may 

 generally be safely mixed. Moreover, 

 a bee returning to its own hive with a 

 load of treasure is a very different 

 creature from a hungry marauder ; 

 and it is said that a bee, if laden with 

 honey, is allowed to enter any hive 

 with" impunity. Mr. Langstrotli con- 

 tinues : "There is an air of roguery 

 about a thieving bee which, to the ex- 

 pert, is as characteristic as are the 

 motions of a pickpocket to the skillful 

 policeman. Its sneaking look and ner- 

 vous guilty agitation, once seen, can 

 never be mistaken." It is at any rate 

 natural that a bee which enters a 

 wrong hive by accident should be 

 much surprised and alarmed, and 

 would thus probably betray herself. 



So far as my own observations go, 

 though bees habitually know and re- 

 turn to their own hive, still, if placed 

 on the alighting-board of another, 

 they often enter it without molesta- 

 tion 



Though bees which have stung and 

 lost their sting always perish, they do 

 not die immediately; and in the mean- 

 time tliey show little sign of suffering 

 from the terrible injury. On August 

 25, a bee which had come several times 

 to my honey was startled. Hew to one 

 of the windows, and had evidently 

 lost her way. While I was putting 

 her back she stung me, and lost her 

 sting in doing so. 1 putherin through 

 the postern, and for twenty minutes 

 she remained on the landing stage ; 

 she then went into the hive, and after 

 an hour retuined to tlie honey and fed 

 cjuietly, notwithstanding the terrible 

 injury she had received. After this, 

 however, I did not see her any more. 



Like many other insects, bees are 

 much affected by light. Oneevening, 

 having to go down to the cellar, I lit a 

 small (;overed lamii. A bee whicli was 

 out came to it, and flying round and 

 round like a moth, followed me the 

 whole of the way there. 



I often found that if bees which 

 were brought to honey did not return 

 at once, still thev \vould do so a day 

 or two afterwards. For instance, on 

 July 11, 1874, a hot thundery day, and 

 when the bees were much "out of hu- 

 mor, I brought twelve bees to some 

 honey ; only one came back, and that 

 one only once ; but on the following 

 day several returned. 



My bees sometimes ceased work at 

 times when I could not account for 

 their doing so. October 19 was a beau- 

 tiful, sunshiny, warm day. All the 

 morning the bees were fully active. 

 At 11:25 I brought one to the honey- 

 comb, and she returned at the usual 

 intervals for a couple of hours ; but 

 after that she came no more, nor were 

 there any other bees at work. Yet the 

 weather was lovely, and the hive is so 

 placed as to catch the afternoon sun. 



Far, indeed, from having been able 

 to discover any evidence of affection 

 among them, they appear to be thor- 

 oughly callous and indifferent to one 

 another. As already mentioned, it was 

 necessary for me occasionally to kill a 

 bee ; but I never found that the others 

 took the slightest notice. Thus, on 

 Oct. 11,1 crushed a bee close to one 

 which was feeding— in fact, so close 

 that their wings touched ; yet the sur- 

 vivor took no notice whatever of the 

 death of her sister, but went on feed- 

 ing with every appearance of compo- 

 sure and enjoyment, just as if nothing 

 had happened. When the pressure 

 was removed, she remained bv the 

 side of the corpse without the slight- 

 est appearance of apprehension, sor- 

 row or recognition. She evidently did 

 not feel the slightest emotion at her 

 sister's death, nor did she show any 

 alarm lest the same fate should befall 

 her also. In a second case exactly the 

 same occurred. Again, I have several 

 times, while a bee has been feeding, 

 held a second bee by the leg close to 

 her ; the prisoner, oif course, struggled 

 to escape, and buzzed as loudly as she 

 could ; yet the l)ee which was feeding 

 took no notice whatever. So far, 

 therefore, from being at all affection- 

 ate, I doubt whether bees are in the 

 least fond of one another 



Thus in nine experiments, out of the 



ninety-seven bees which came out (irst. 

 no less than seventy-one were marked 

 ones, though out of the whole number 

 of bees in the hive there were only 

 twelve marked for this purpose, ancl, 

 indeed, even fewer in the earlier ex- 

 periments. I oucht, perhaps, to add 

 that I generally fed the bees when I 

 called them out. 



THE SENSE OF HEARING. 



Auqust 29.— The result of my exper- 

 iments on the hearing of bees has sur- 

 prised me very much. It is generally 

 considered that to a certain extent the 

 emotions of bees are expressed by the 

 sounds they make, which seems to 

 imply that they possess the power of 

 hearing. I do not by anv means in- 

 tend to deny that this is the case. 

 Nevertheless I never found them take 

 any notice of any noise which I made, 

 even when it was close to them. I 

 tried one of my bees with a violin. I 

 made all the noise I could, but to my 

 surprise she took no notice. I could 

 not even see a twitch of the antennae. 

 The next day I tried the same with 

 another bee, but could not see the 

 slightest sign that she was conscious of 

 the noise. On August 31 1 repeated the 

 same experiment with another bee 

 with the same result. On September 

 12 and 13 I tried several bees with a 

 dog-whistle and a shrill pipe ; but they 

 took no notice whatever, nor did a set 

 of tuning-forks which I tried on a sub- 

 sequent day have any more effect. 

 These tuning-forks extended over 

 three octaves, beginning with a below 

 the ledger line. I also tried with my 

 voice, shouting, etc., close to the head 

 of a bee ; but, in spite of my utmost 

 efforts, the bees took no notice. I re- 

 peated these experiments at night 

 when the bees were quiet ; but no 

 noise that I could make seemed to dis- 

 turb them in the least. 



In this respect the results of my ob- 

 servations on bees entirely agreed with 

 those on ants, and I will here, there- 

 fore, only refer to what has been said 

 in a preceding chapter. 



THE COLOR SENSE OF BEES. 



The consideration of the causes 

 which have led to the structure and 

 coloring of flowers is one of the most 

 fascinating parts of natural history. 

 Most botanists are now agreed that 

 insects, and especially bees, have 

 played a very important part in the 

 development of flowers. While in 

 many plants, almost invariably with 

 inconspicuous blossoms, the pollen is 

 carried from flower to flower by the 

 wind, in the case of almost all large 

 and brightly colored flowers this is ef- 

 fected by the agency of insects. In 

 such flowers the colors, scent, and 

 honey serve to attract insects, while 

 the size and form are arranged in such 

 a manner that the insects fertilize 

 them with pollen brought from anoth> 

 er plant. • 



There could, therefore, be little doubt 

 that bees possess a sense of color. 

 Nevertheless I thought it would be 

 desirable to prove this if possible by 

 actual experiment, which had not yet 

 been done; Accordingly on July 12 I 

 brought a bee to some Ifoney ij'hich I 

 placed on blue paper, and about 3 feet 



