Bees and Wasps. 67 



orange at the beginning of the experiment. I do 

 not attribute it to any preference for the orange or 

 yellow; indeed, I shall presently give reasons for 

 considering that blue is the favourite colour of bees. 



7. I had ranged my colours in a line, with the blue 

 at one end. It was a cold morning, and only one 

 bee came. She had been several times the pre- 

 ceding day, generally to the honey which was on 

 the blue paper. This day also she came to the 

 blue ; I moved the blue gradually along the line 

 one stage every half-hour, during which time she 

 paid fifteen visits to the honey, in every case going 

 to that which was on the blue paper. 



These experiments only prove that bees have 

 the power of distinguishing one colour from 

 another. I afterwards, however, made a second 

 series of experiments which indicated that they 

 prefer blue to either red, white, yellow, or green. 



F 2 



