Natural History of the Honeybee. 31 



twenty steps from the hives, fully exposed to the burning sun. I let them hang, and 

 remained standing near. About eleven o 'clock they again broke loose, soon alighting in 

 a somewhat shadier place at a short distance, remained there until three o'clock, broke 

 up very quickly for the third time, and went over the garden pavilion toward the open 

 fields. My assistants ran after them. I mounted a horse as quickly as possible, and 

 galloped after them. Before I came up to the assistants the swarm was lost to sight, and 

 we have it yet to see today. The scouting bees were still on the wall, went back again 

 in the evening to No. 77, and appeared early on the 18th. This reappearance was indeed 

 a disappointment, for, powdered on the evening of the 18th, they all entered No. 7 ('Dr. 

 Franzia'), and not one to 'Solomon.' On the 19th, quite early, I had the crevices in all 

 places carefully closed with lime, and put up a straw hive with an alighting-board. The 

 scouting bees came, at first crept behind the hive around the closed crevices, then took 

 possession of the hive. I tilted it frequently to see what the bees were doing inside. 

 1 saw little; they ran around anxiously as if they might} be cleaning out the* hive.* On 

 the same day at noon a swarm emerged from ' Franzia ' and, after changing its place twice, 

 finally alighted about four o 'clock under a shady linden-tree. Here it could be observed 

 comfortably. Single bees flew in all directions, each time mapping out the place with the 

 usual circling flight, then returned; and here the swarm hung over night. With the first 

 shimmer of morning red, there I sat again with my assistants, the garden doors open on 

 all sides as on the previous day, the groom (all the implements for capturing swarms on 

 his back, a true Cupid with arrows) at a short distance with two saddled horses. At 

 5:30 I saw more bees fly quickly toward the south without circling, and none returned. 

 At 7:30 the swarm broke away again, flying low and very slowly in a southerly direction, 

 and the leaders could be distinguished rather clearly. The groom hastily mounted a 

 horse, and I went running ipsissimis pedibus beside the head of the swarm nearly to the 

 end of the garden, ever more and more convinced thai} the swarm knew where it wished 

 to go. The assistant brought out the other horse. I threw myself upon it, hastened out 

 of the garden, and followed the- groom through thick and thin. We followed well at a 

 moderate trot for a quarter of an hour, but finally the swarm went so quickly, always 

 at a height of between four and nine feet, and in a southerly direction, that we hac!j to 

 ride indeed en carriere. We came to the next village, not three quarters of an hour's ride 

 distant, and the swarm went into a farmer's garden. I went over the hedge as if in hunt, 

 was in the middle of the swarm with the horse, and then saw it enter a hollow pear-tree. 

 This move took place with such celerity and surety that it seemed to me that the swarm 

 without a doubt had chosen this place in Seebach (through scouting bees). A capture 

 without smoke was not to be thought of, so I begged the owner to let me stay in his 

 Eden for a while (for I would smoke out the swarm for him the very day into a hive, 

 and leave it to him as his property.) After scarcely twenty minutes the bees began to 

 carry out little chips from inside the tree, went foraging, etc." 



Can we explain this interesting procedure only upon the ground of an "unknown 

 force leading back to the hive"? Can we explain it without accepting the existence of 

 a memory, a capacity for orientation through the eyes, through memory pictures? 'I think 

 not in the least. 



Must we not here acknowledge a means of communication, a method of understanding 

 which does not rest upon odor reflexes? I can not think of this going on without some 

 means of understanding, and I presume that the scouting bees lead the ' swarm by an 

 alluring sound which naturally can not be observed. 



It is noteworthy that, of 60,000 to 80,000 bees, about fifty ta 1 a hundred serve as scouting 

 bees; but, peculiarly enough, only before the swarming of the unwieldy, usually low- 

 placed first swarm' (often with an old queen heavy with eggs), while the colony never or 

 very seldom sends out scouting bees before the issue of the light-footed after-swarm which 

 with the unfertilized easily flying queen generally alights high up. 



Now and then the scouting bees make it very convenient for the bee-keeper by selecting 

 an empty hive and leading the swarm there.* 4 Dishonest people who wish to capture 



91 Deutsche Bienenz. in Theorie u. Praxis, Nr. 9, p. 144, 1899. 



