M. BONNIER’S EXPERIMENT. 303 
the bees were previously accustomed to come to the 
spot in question, expecting to find honey. 
I do not think, however, that any conclusive result 
could be expected from this experiment. In the first 
place, after the first five minutes there were about 
thirty bees on each cube, and in less than ten minutes 
nearly a hundred, and the colour therefore must have 
been almost covered up. The presence of so many bees 
would also attract their companions. Moreover, as the 
honey was all removed in less than twenty minutes, the 
bees were evidently working against time. They were 
like the passengers in an express train, turned hurriedly 
into a refreshment-room; and we cannot expect that 
they would be much influenced by the colouring of the 
tablecloth. In fact, the experiment was too hurried, 
and the test not delicate enough. 
Then, again, he omitted blue, which I hope to show 
is the bee’s favourite colour, and his cubes were all 
* coloured. It is true that one was green; but any one 
may satisfy himself that a piece of green paper on 
grass is almost as conspicuous as any other colour. To 
make this experiment complete, M. Bonnier should 
have placed beside the honey on the coloured cubes a 
similar supply, without any accompaniment of colour to 
render it conspicuous. 
I could not, therefore, regard these experiments as 
at all conclusive. The following seem to me a more 
fair test :— 
T took slips of glass of the size generally used for 
