BEES AND WASPS— MEMORY. 
153 
In this respect they certainly differ considerably. Some of 
the bees which came out of the little postern door (already de- 
scribed) were able to find tlieir way back after it had been shown 
to them a few times. Others were much more stupid ; thus one 
bee came out on the 9 th, 10th. 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 
17th, 18th, and 19th, and came to the honey; but though I 
repeatedly put her back through the postern, she was never 
able to find her way for herself. 
I often found that if bees which were brought to honey did 
not return at once, still they would do so a day or two after- 
wards. For instance, on duly 11, 1874, a hot thundery day, 
and when the bees were much out of humour, I brought 
twelve bees to some honey ; only one came back, and that one 
only twice ; but on the following day several of them returned. 
This latter observation is important, as proving that 
bees can remember for at least a whole day the locality 
where they have found honey only once before, and that 
they so far think about their past experiences as to return 
to that locality when foraging. 
As the association of ideas by contiguity is the prim 
ciple which forms the basis of all psychology, it is de- 
sirable to consider still more attentively this the earliest 
manifestation that we have of it in the memory of the 
Hymenoptera. That it is not exercised with exclusive 
reference to locality is proved by the following observation 
of Sir John Lubbock : — 
I kept a specimen of Polistes G allied for no less than nine 
months. 1 ... I had no difficulty in inducing her to feed on 
my hand ; but at first she was shy and nervous. She kept her 
sting in constant readiness. . . . Gradually she became quite 
used to me, and when I took her on my hand apparently ex- 
pected to be fed. She even allowed me to stroke her without 
any appearance of fear, and for some months I never saw her 
sting. 
One other observation which goes to prove that other 
things besides locality are noted and remembered by 
bees may here be quoted. Sir John placed a bee in 
a bell jar, the closed end of which he held towards a 
window. The bee buzzed about at that end trying to 
1 ‘ Three months ’ in the Journal of the Linnasan Society, but Sir 
John Lubbock informs me that this is a misprint. 
