PREFERENCE FOR BLUE. 307 
and one of the last four only in 26 cases; while, on the 
contrary, they selected the plain as one of the first 
three only in 25 cases, and one of the last four in 75 
cases. 
Blue | Green | Orange| Plain Red | White | Yellow 
First one 31 10 il. 5 14 19 9 
Second... 18 11 13 ‘i 10 21 20 
Third mae 25 12 8 13 16 13 13 
Fourth... 8 23 16 11 11 12 20 
Fifth see 11 13 15 19 17 16 10 
Sixth asi 3 15 22 21 18 12 9 
Seventh ... 4 16 16 24 14 7 19 
100 | 100 100 | 100 | 100 100 | 100 
I may add that I was by no means prepared for 
this result. Muller, in his remarkable volume on 
Alpine Flowers, states that bees are much more attracted 
by yellow than by white.! In the same work he gives 
the following table :— 
In every 100 visits of insects 
there were 
Flowers 
Butterflies Bees ee <pther, 
3 yellowish-white species 12°8 51:3 15-4 20°5 
23 yellow i 47 27°5 28-1 72 
16 red as 51-4 35-1 9-2 8-2 
7 blue is 64:9 26°6 10-7 1:9 
This table does not indeed show any absolute pre- 
ference for one colour rather than another. In the 
first place, the number of species compared is very 
different in the case of the different colours; and in 
' Alpenblumen, p. 487. 
