BEHAVIOUR OF BEES IF TAKEN FROM HOME. 265 



This is not a very large proportion. Out of the 

 whole number no less than ninety-seven appear to 

 have lost their way. May not the forty-seven have 

 found theirs by sight or by accident ? Instinct, how- 

 ever inferior to reason, has the advantage of being 

 generally unerring. When two out of three bees went 

 wrong, we may, I think, safely dismiss the idea of 

 instinct. Moreover, the distance from home was only 

 one and a half to two miles. Now, bees certainly 

 know the country for some distance round their home ; 

 how far they generally forage I believe we have no 

 certain information, but it seems not unreasonable to 

 suppose that if they once came within a mile of their 

 nest they would find themselves within ken of some 

 famih'ar landmark. Now, if we suppose that 150 bees 

 are let out two miles from home, and that they flew 

 away at random, distributing themselves equally in all 

 directions, a little consideration will show that some 

 twenty-five of them would find themselves within a mile 

 of home, and consequently would know where they were. 

 I have never myself experimented with Chalicodomas, 

 but I have observed that if a hive bee is taken to a 

 distance, she behaves as a pigeon does under similar 

 circumstances ; that is to say, she flies round and round, 

 gradually rising higher and higher and enlarging her 

 circle, until I suppose her strength fails or she comes 

 within sight of some known object. Again, if the bees 

 had returned by a sense of direction, they would have 

 been back in a few minutes. To fly one and a half or 

 two miles would not take five minutes. One bee out of 

 the 147 did it in that time ; but the others took one, 

 two, three, or even five hours. Surely, then, it is 

 reasonable to suppose that these lost some time before 



