The Life of the Bee 
I even one day came across an extraor- 
dinary little Italian bee, whose belt I had 
marked with a touch of blue paint. In 
her second trip she brought two of her 
sisters, whom I imprisoned, without in- 
terfering with her. She departed once 
more, and this time returned with three 
friends, whom I again confined, and so 
till the end of the afternoon, when, count- 
ing my prisoners, I found that she had 
told the news to no less than eighteen 
bees. 
In fact you will find, if you make this 
experiment yourself, that communication, 
if not general, at least is frequent. The 
possession of this faculty is so well 
known to American bee-hunters that they 
trade upon it when engaged in searching 
for nests. Mr. Josiah Emery remarks 
on this head (quoted by Romanes in 
his “Intellect of Animals”): “Going 
to a field or wood at a distance from 
166 
