OASES OF APPAEENT STUPIDITY. 255 



the mischief, the operation being in the natural order 

 of her work. But now comes the curious fact. In 

 another series of cells M. Fabre pierced a hole in the cell 

 below the part where the bee was working, and through 

 which the honey at once began to exude. The poor 

 stupid little bee, however, never thought of repairing 

 the breach. She worked on as if nothins; had happened. 

 In her alternate journeys she brought first mortar and 

 then honey, which, however, ran out again as fast as it 

 was poured in. This experiment he repeated o^er and 

 over again with various modifications in detail, but 

 always with the same result. It may be suggested that 

 possibly the bee was unable to stop up a hole once 

 formed. But that could not have been the case. M. 

 Fabre took one of the pellets of mortar brought by the 

 bee, and successfully stopped the hole himself. The 

 omission, therefore, was due, not to a want of power, 

 but of intellect. But M. Fabre carried his experiment 

 still further. Perhaps the bee had not noticed the inj ury. 

 He chose, therefore, a cell which was only just begun 

 and contained very little honey. In tliis he made a 

 comparatively large hole. The bee returned with a 

 supply of honey, and, seeming much surprised to find 

 the hole in the bottom of the cell, examined it carefully, 

 felt it with her antennee, and even pushed them through 

 it. Did she then, as might naturally have been expected, 

 stop it up ? Not a bit. The unexpected catastrophe 

 transcended the range of her intellect, and she calmly 

 proceeded to pour into this vessel of the Danaides load 

 after load of honey, which of course ran out of the bottom 

 as fast as she poured it in at the top. All the afternoon 

 she laboured at tliis fruitless task, and began again 

 undiscouraged the next morning. At length, when she 

 13 



