BIK JOHN LUBBOCK ON BEES AND -WASPS. 125; 



Some bees, however, have seemed to me more intelligent in 

 this respect than others. A bee which I had fed several times 

 and which had flown about in the room, found its way out of the 

 glass in a quarter of an hour, and when put ia a second time 

 came out at once. Another bee, when I closed the postern door, 

 used to come round to the honey through an open window. 



Bees seem to me much less clever in finding things than I had 

 expected. One day (April 14, 1872) when a number of them 

 were very busy on some berberries, 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 1 put some honey on one of the 

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

 kept continually returning till past five in the evening. 



One day when I came home in the afternoon I found that at 

 least a hundred bees had got into my room through the postern and 

 were on the wiadow, yet not one was attracted by an open jar of 

 honey which stood in a shady corner about 3 feet 6 inches from 

 the window. 



One day (29th April, 1872) I placed a saucer of honey close to 

 some rorget-me-nots, on which bees were numerous and busy ; 

 yet from 10 a.m. till 6 only one bee went to the honey. 



I put some honey in a hollow in the garden wall opposite the 

 hives at 10.30 (this wall is about five feet high and four feet from 

 the hives) ; yet the bees did not find it duriag the whole day. 



On the 30th March, 1873, a fine sunshiny day, when the bees 

 were very active, I placed a glass containing honey at 9 in the 

 morning on the wall in front of the hives ; but not a single bee 

 went to the honey the whole day. On April 20 I tried the same 

 experiment, with the same result. 



September 19. At 9.30 I placed some honey in a glass about 

 four feet from and just in front of the hive ; but during the whole 

 day not a bee observed it. 



As it then occurred to me that it might be suggested that 

 there was something about this honey which rendered it unat- 

 tractive to the bees, on a following day I placed it again on the 

 top of the wall for three hours, during which not a single bee 

 came, and then moved it close to the alighting-board of the hive. 

 It remained unnoticed for a quarter of an hour, when two bees 

 observed it ; and others soon followed in considerable numbers. 



