136 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
never saw her parents, who must have 
perished before she issued from tlie egg. 
Her mate and any other of her own 
species whom she may have seen are ex- 
actly in tlie some position as lierself, yet 
she proceeds with all due dignity, and 
constructs her nest with a regularity 
and completeness that is amazing. The 
mother first cuts a canal of suitable di- 
mensions in a log of timber, especially 
when partly decayed ; she then lays an egg 
at the end of the hole, and places near it 
a mass of pollen and honey, as food for 
the future larva. The egg and the food 
are then sealed up by a thin wall, made 
up of powdered wood and a secretion of 
the insect. In this manner the mother 
bee divides her house into little cham- 
bers, depositing an egg in each one. In 
due time the eggs hatch, and the larvae 
devours the food left for them, and then 
pass into the chrysalis state. When the 
perfect insect is developed, it destroys 
the x)artitions and escapes into the open 
air, and proceeds to construct its nest, 
just the same as its mother did before it. 
Now how do these bees acquire the knowl- 
edge to construct their nests ? This is a 
question that offers food for the advanced 
thinker. 
Another curious thing is noticeable in 
the case of young pointer dogs, which 
goes to show that a peculiarity, not 
originally possessed by the breed, can be, 
and is, hereditarily transmitted to the ex- 
clusion of an instinctive quality.* These 
dogs, though they may never have had 
any previous training, when taken into a 
stubble field for the first time, act as 
though they had been taught to point at 
birds, as their parents had before them, 
but whose actions they had never seen, 
and whose natural instincts would lead 
them to rush at any small birds or beasts 
that might make their appearance. Here 
we have one instance where education 
or training is handed down from one 
generation to another. 
According to a quotation made from an 
unpublished M.S. of the late Charles 
Darwin, "even the headless oyster seems 
to profit by experience. Disquemose re- 
*Froni "Animal Intelligence." By G. J. Ro- 
manes, F.R.S. , 
cords that ' oysters taken from a depth 
never uncovered by the sea open their 
shells, lose the water within, and perish ; 
but oysters from the same place and 
depth, if kept in reservoirs, where they 
are occasionally left uncovered for a short 
time, and are otherwise incommoded, 
learn to keep their shells shut, and then 
live for a much longer time when taken 
out of the water..' " According to Bingley, 
this fact is turned to a practical account 
in the " oyster schools " of France : " The 
distance from the coast to Paris being too 
great for the newly-dragged oysters to 
travel without opening their shells, they 
are first taught in the schools to bear a 
longer exposure to the air without gaping, 
and when their education is complete, 
they are sent on to the metropolis, where 
they arrive with closed shells and in a 
healthy condition." Here we have an in- 
telligence evinced by an animal of very 
low organization, for it is evident the 
oyster can modify its actions according 
to circumstances, so as to avoid incour 
venience. 
In ants we find a very high grade of 
mental power, and there is a superabun- 
dance of evidence that they possess fair 
memories. "It is well known that if a 
strange ant, even of their own species, is 
introduced into a nest, it is, as a rule, at- 
tacked at once and killed without mercy. 
But if some of the inmates of a nest are 
removed, and kept apart from their fel- 
lows, even for months, they are at once 
recognized when brought back to the 
community. It is an important fact that 
this recognition is not automatically in- 
variable. When ants are removed in 
the pupa state, tended by strangers, and 
then restored, some, at least, of their re- 
lations, are certainly puzzled, and in 
many cases doubt their citizenship. We 
say some, because, while strangers imder 
the circumstances would have been im- 
immediately attacked, these ants are in 
every case amicably received by a ma- 
jority of the colony, and sometimes it 
takes several hours before they come 
across any one who does not recognize 
them." 
As to the memory of ants for direction 
and locality, many of the observations 
