276 BEES DO NOT INVARIABLY 
venient to procure one of Marriott’s observatory hives, 
both on account of its construction, and also because I 
could have it in my room, and thus keep the bees more 
immediately under my own eye. My room is square, with 
three windows, two on the south-west side, where the hive 
was placed, and one on the south-east. Besides the 
ordinary entrance from the outside, the hive had a small 
postern door opening into the room; this door was 
provided with an alighting-board, and closed by a plug : 
as a general rule the bees did not notice it much unless 
the passage was very full of them. 
I then placed some honey on a table close to the 
hive, and from time to time fed certain bees on it. 
Those which had been fed soon got accustomed to come 
for the honey; but partly on account of my frequent 
absence from home, and partly from their difficulty 
in finding their way about, and their tendency to lose 
themselves, I could never keep any marked bee under 
observation for more than a few days. 
Out of a number of similar observations I will here 
mention a few and give them in detail in the Appendix, 
as throwing some light on the power of communicating 
facts possessed by the bees; they will also illustrate the 
daily occupations of a working bee. 
Experiment 1.—Thus, on August 24, 1874, I opened 
the postern door leading into my room at 6.45 A.M., and 
watched till 1 p.m. three bees, which had been trained 
to come to honey at a particular spot. They did not, 
however, know their way very well, and consequently 
