AETiFiciAi, swAi:sir:Nn. 195 



daily till the 29th, thcj- canio forth about noon, disporting 

 in front of the hive, in the rays of the sun. They, hoAv- 

 ever, manifestly, did not issue for the purpose of gathering 

 honey or pollen, for during that time none were noticed 

 returning with pellets ; none wore seen alighting^on any 

 of the flowers in my garden ; and I found no honey in 

 the stomachs of such as I caught and killed for examina- 

 tion. The gatfioring was done exclusively by the old bees 

 of the original stock, until the '29th of May, when the 

 Italian bees began to labor in that vocation also — being 

 then 19 days old. 



" 2. On the feeding troughs placed in my garden, and 

 which were constantly crowded with common bees, I saw 

 no Italian bees till the 27th of May, seventeen days after 

 the first had emerged from the cells. 



" From the 10th of May on, I daily presented to Italian 

 bees, in the hive, a stick dipped in honey. The younger 

 ones never attempted to lick any of it ; the older occasion- 

 ally seemed to sip a little, but immediately left it and 

 moved away. The common bees always eagerly licked it 

 up, never leaving it till they had filled their honey-bags. 

 Not tUl the 25th of May did I see any Italian bee lick up 

 honey eagerly, as the common bees did from the begin- 

 ning. 



"These repeated observations force me to conclude that, 

 during the first two weeks of the worker-bee's life, the 

 impulse for gathering honey and pollen does not exist, or 

 at least is not developed ; and that the development of this 

 impulse proceeds slowly and gradually. At first the 

 young bee will not even touch the honey presented to 

 her ; some days later she wiU simply taste it, and only 

 after a further lapse of time will she consume it eagerly. 

 Two weeks elapse before she readily eats honey, and 

 nearly three weeks pass, before the gathering impulse is 



