448 General Notes. 
individuals, I cannot place on record a single instance of clear and 
unmistaken scorpion suicide.—/Vature. 
EXHIBITION OF REASONING POWER IN THE POLAR BEAR— 
A contributor to Nature relates the following instance of rè- 
markable intelligence on the part of this animal in cracking cocoa- 
nuts, In the Clifton Zodlogical Gardens there are two female 
Polar bears, between two and a-half and three years old, which 
came here quite young. A cocoanut was thrown into the tank, 
it sunk a long way, and the bear waited quietly till after some — 
time it rose a little out of her. reach. She then made a current 
in the water with her paw, and thus brought it within reach. This _ 
habit has already been several times noticed in Polar bears. She 
then took it on shore and tried to break it by leaning her weight 
on it with one paw. Failing in this, she took the nut between her 
fore-paws, raised herself on her hind legs to her full height, and 
threw the nut forwards against the bars of the den, three or four 
feet off. She then leaned her weight on it, hoping she had cracked 
it, but failed again. She then repeated the process, this time sue — 
cessfully. The keeper told the writer (J. G. Grenfell) she em — 
ployed the same method to break the leg-bone of a horse. That 
this is the result of individual experience, and not of instinct, is 
clear from the fact that her companion has not learned the trick of - 
opening them thus, nor could this one do it when she first came — 
i 
i 
The method of throwing is precisely similar to that adopted by the 
Cebus monkey described by Mr. Romanes (Animal Intelligence): 
Tue Senses oF Bers,—Sir John Lubbock recently read to the 
members of the Linnean Society an account of his further gri 
vations on the habits of insects made during the past year. ee d . 
two queen ants which have lived with him since 1874, and 
are now, therefore, no less than eight years old, are sti 
laid eggs last summer as usual. His oldest workers are 
years old. Dr. Miiller, in a recent review, had on jah ; 
Lubbock pointed out that he had anticipated the objections Sug, 
e supposed i 
source of error. The difference was, moreover, not one par 
ciple, nor does Dr. Müller question the main conchae iad E 
gested by Dr. Müller, and had guarded against th 
at or doubt the preference of bees for blue, which, 
. . = i John : 
strongly indicated by his own observations on flowers: = the 
also recorded some further experiments with eera naif 
power of hearing. Some bees were trained to come sat 
which was placed on a musical box on the lawn close to een 
. The musical box was kept going for several hou seed 
for a fortnight. It was then brought into the house an P yards 
out of sight, but at the open window, and only about seven 
from where it had been before. The bees, however, 
the honey, though when it was once shown them the 
1] alive and 
= St 
did notfind 
ram 
