The Life of the Bee 
ever the cause, it often will also happen 
that the bee whom fortune has favoured 
will return to the honey accompanied by 
two or three friends. I am aware that 
Sir John Lubbock, in the appendix to 
his book on “ Ants, Bees, and Wasps,” 
records the results of his investigations 
in long and minute tables; and from 
these we are led to infer that it is a matter 
of rarest occurrence for a single bee to 
follow the one who has made the dis- 
covery. The learned naturalist does not 
name the race of bees which he selected 
for his experiments, or tell us whether 
the conditions were especially unfavour- 
able. As for myself I only can say that 
my own tables, compiled with great care, 
—and every possible precaution having 
been taken that the bees should not be 
directly attracted by the odour of the 
honey, — establish that on an average one 
bee will bring others four times out of ten. 
165 
