238 NASCENT REASON, EMOTION, 



skilled observer should, as Sir John Lubbock has done, 

 make new and special observations on the subject. 



A few illustrations will enable the reader to form his 

 own judgment, as to the extent of the power possessed by 

 the Social Insects of adapting themselves to unfamiliar 

 conditions. 



The first instance shows forcibly the comparative ina- 

 bility of Bees to accommodate themselves to changes in 

 their environment, and, incidentally, their lack of any 

 real loyalty or ' sympathy ' for their queen when she is 

 away from her customary surroundings. 



Wishing to exchange his queen Bee for one of another brtred, 

 she was placed, Sir John Lubbock sa3^s, "with some workers in a 

 box containing some comb." Under these new and unaccustomed 

 conditions the workers took no notice of their queen, so that three 

 days afterwards she was found " weak, helpless, and miserable." 

 The next day some bees were coming to a store of honey at the 

 observer's window, and he placed the helpless queen close to them. 

 *' In alighting, several of them even touched her ; yet not one of 

 her subjects took the slightest notice of her. TJie same q7teen, 

 when afterwards placed in a hive, immediately attracted a number 

 of hees."' 



Another experiment also tends to confirm the machine- 

 like or undeviating regularity of the intelligence of Bees, 

 by showing their difficulty in recognizing food when it is 

 placed under conditions slightly differcLt from those to 

 which they are accustomed. 



A number of these insects were noticed to be very busy with some 

 berberries, and Sir John Lubbock says : " I put a saucer with some 

 honey between two bunches of flowers ; these were repeatedly 

 visited, and were so close that there was hardly room for the saucer 

 between them, yet from 9.30 to 3.30 not a single bee took any 

 notice of the honey. At 3.30 I put some honey on one of the 

 bunches of ilowers, and it was eagerly sucked by the bees; two 

 kept continually returning till past five in the evening." 



