CHAPTER X. 
BEES. 
I ORIGINALLY intended to make my experiment prin- 
cipally with bees, but soon found that ants were ou the 
whole more suitable for my purpose. 
In the first place, ants are much less excitable, they 
are less liable to accidents, and from the absence of 
wings are more easy to keep under continuous obser- 
vation. 
Still, I have made a certain number of observations 
with bees, some of which may be worth here recording. 
As already mentioned, the current statements with 
reference to the language of social insects depend much 
on the fact that when one of them, either by accident or 
in the course of its rambles, has discovered a stock of 
food, in a very short time many others arrive to profit 
by the discovery. This, however, does not necessarily 
imply any power of describing localities. If the bees 
or ants merely follow their more fortunate comrade, 
the matter is comparatively simple; if, on the con- 
trary, others are sent, the case becomes very different. 
In order to test this I proposed to keep honey in a 
given place for some time, in order to satisfy myself 
