Natural History of the Honeybee. 2o 



mounted ; slowly in widening circles, but keeping very low on the whole, at perhaps twice 

 the height of a man. After a minute one bee returned to the box; ir< one and a half 

 minutes, a second came. Then I drove both these off and took the box away. During 

 the next minute none returned to the place where the box had been, but I saw a number 

 zealously seeking, flying close to the grass in large circles, then flying a little higher. 

 Suddenly, for some unknown reason, numerous bees in a second box. under my coat buzzed 

 loudly and almost immediately the searching bees buzzed around me (I was standing 

 in the direction of the wind) so strikingly that my companions beside me exclaimed, 

 "They have heard the other bees.". Although I now replaced the box to its former posi- 

 tion it remained disregarded; but whenever we went in the near neighborhood the bees 

 followed us, and some alighted on my shoulders, hat, and coat. When I went further 

 away my companions were surrounded, although they had no bees with them. It is 

 noteworthy that the bees in the second box belonged to another colony. 



I shall now describe the second experiment. The other box was held up high; the 

 inmates about thirty or forty in number circled in a small radius for a long time, then 

 gradually made larger circles. Some worked in a more up-and-down fashion, close to 

 the box, continually turning the head toward it, just as in? the first orientation flight from 

 the hive, about which I shall speak more in detail further on. About half a minute after 

 I took the box and drew back quickly, trying to impress accurately on my mind the spot 

 at the height where the box had been. Two bees appeared in a fev^ seconds, but in a 

 place a little to one side; and then, after making large circles, disappeared again. The 

 chief thing to be seen was the irregular search which they all carried on together after 

 a few minutes in ever narrowing circles, 74 apparently flying close over the ground/ about 

 two meters from the place where I had stood. The bees were no longer seeking the box, 

 but their home, the entrance of which (according "to my estimate) was just at the height 

 above the ground of the circles which they were making. I can give no other explanation 

 for this singular phenomenon. After the bees again wandered aimlessly for some time, 

 flying around us part of the time as described earlier, they followed us homeward for 

 about twenty paces, then turned back. That proportionately few flew back to the apiary 

 is explained by the fact that the bees shortly before had come from the moor, and in 

 the cool autumn weather could hardly have flown out, so that an orientation from the 

 apiary was not yet possible. The day of the experiment was sunny, with a moderate 

 southwest wind. 



The -striking occurrence, that my companions and I were so thickly surrounded, can 

 be interpreted in so many ways that to explain it would lead us too far. 



In the foregoing I see many proofs for the existence of memory for locality; but all 

 these box experiments are untrustworthy, since the investigations go on under entirely 

 abnormal ^ condition for the bees, and the results do .not harmonize with those gained 

 from the apiary. It seems very risky to me, therefore, to draw conclusions from them 

 for normal conditions, since we may easily be deceived. The time of year and the weather, 

 as well as the management; of the bees, will greatly modify the results of this kind of 

 experiments. If it is recognized how easily bees are influenced by various stimuli (e. g., 

 shaking, cooling, breathing on them, confinement, feeding, steange strong odors, etc.), 

 I say influenced, diverted, "confused," "subdued," "goaded on," or "calmed," then it 

 will be realized how difficult is the interpretation of such experiments and how cautiously 

 one must work on them. 



If one ask Bethe why the unknown force acts at a distance of only three or four 

 kilometers, we receive no explanation from him: he does not even attempt to give one. 

 The explanation, however, is very simple. The mysterious force acts within the space in 

 which the bees have previously taken their flights of orientation, and acts only as far as 

 they have flown at any time and gathered memory, pictures. The proofs for this are 

 easy to bring forward. They show on the other hand that this unknown force so desig- 

 nated is identical with memory of location. 



74 One sees from this that bees pay attention to each other, since they keep together and exhibit the 

 same behavior. Imitation instinct? Sense of hearing? 



