Chap. XIII.] LOWER ANIMALS. 209 



flo.^ers, which they visit by means of Smell rather than 

 Sight, a writer says,* — ■ 



" Bees particularly, and also butterflies, visit a distinct variety, 

 and for the time confine their attention to it, settling on and suck- 

 ing the honey of that variety only; e,g , a bee settling on a scarlet 

 geranium will not go from it to another species or variety, but 



gives its attention to the particular variety only never 



going from a scarlet geranium to another scarlet flower, even if in 



contact I never remarked a bee go from a lily to an 



amaryllis, or the reverse." 



W. M. Gabb, writing from St. Domingo, with regard to 

 the Butterfly, says,t — 



" My Indian servants always carried with them a fermented 

 paste of maize flower, which they mixed with water to the consist- 

 ency of gruel, as a beverage. On our arriving at the side of a 

 stream in a narrow gorge, invariably, within a few minutes after 

 they opened a package of this paste, although there might not have 

 been a butterfly in sight before, those most brilliant of their kind 

 would come sailing up, always from leeward, and I have made 

 some of my best catches in this manner. I have also caught them 

 by baiting with a piece of over-i'ipe or even rotten banana. At 

 other times they were almost unapproachable." 



Again, another remarkable fact points to a similar 

 keenness of the sense of Smell in Moths, t — " Collectors 

 of Lepidoptera are well aware that if a virgin female 

 moth of a certain species is enclosed in a box, males of 

 the same species will make their appearance from dis- 

 tances which may be relatively pronounced prodigious." 



There seems, therefore, good reason for believing that 

 the actions of many Insects are largely determined by a 

 subtly and highly discriminative sense of Smell, which in 



* " :N'ature," October 18, 1877. 

 t "I^ature," February 7, 1878, p. 282. 



I " Quarterly Review of Science," Oct., 1877. Art. " Our Six- 

 footed Rivals." See also "Nature," July 18, 1878, pp. 302 and 311. 



