THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



bee on every color save black and orange, and a little 

 later there was a bee on each of these slides. The total 

 number of bees was twelve. 



That bees can by the aid of their sense perceptions 

 draw ' ' simple instinctive inferences ' ' has also been 

 shown experimentally by Forel. In a bed of dahlias 

 of various colors he mounted red, white and blue paper 

 flowers, in each of which was placed a drop of honey. A 

 red, a white flower and a rose-colored piece of paper with 

 a dry dahlia disc were each brought to the attention of a 

 bee. Thenceforth these three bees, which were marked 

 on the back with blue, yellow and white paints, returned 

 regularly to the artefacts and no longer visited the 

 dahlias. 



The painted bees entirely of their own accord, undoubtedly through 

 an instinctive inference from analogy, discovered the other artefacts as 

 soon as their attention had been attracted by the honey on one of them., 

 tmt withstanding the artefacts were some distance from one another and 

 of different colors. For were not the dahlias, too, which they had pre- 

 viously visited of different colors? ... It would be a fallacy to con- 

 elude from this that they do not distinguish colors. 23 



Conclusions 



Bees easily distinguish colors, whether they are arti- 

 ficial (paints, dyes, etc.) or natural ("chlorophyll") 

 colors. 



Bees are more strongly influenced by a colored slide 

 than by one without color. 



Bees, which have been accustomed to visit a certain 

 color, tend to return to it habitually — they exhibit color 

 fidelity. 



But this habit does not become obsessional, since they 

 quickly learn not to discriminate between colors when 

 this is for their advantage. 



"Forel, August, "Ants and Some Other Insects," translated by William 

 Morton Wheeler, p. 27. 



