April, 1887.] history society of Wisconsin. 
105 
SENSE OF COLOR. 
Oar next experiments with the wasps were for the purpose 
of determining whether they were capable of distinguishing and 
remembering colors. Sir John Lubbock had already made some 
valuable experiments with this end in view. His method con¬ 
sisted in putting a glass slip with honey upon colored paper 
and, after the wasps had become accustomed to one color, sub¬ 
stituting another and removing the first paper to a distance of 
from twelve to eighteen inches. The colors used were white, 
yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, vermillion and brick-red. 
His results indicate, but scarcely prove, first, that wasps are 
capable of distinguishing color, and second, that they are not to 
any great extent guided by it. The matter seemed of sufficient 
importance to warrant us in making a good many detailed ex¬ 
periments which were undertaken largely with the idea of veri¬ 
fying Sir John Lubbock’s conclusions. Our results, however, 
are somewhat at variance with his as they tend to prove that 
wasps rely very greatly upon color for guidance. 
It must be remembered that we were watching the wasps at 
their busiest season, and were watching them in large numbers, 
as sometimes 500 passed into and out of the nest in five minutes. 
Moreover we worked to better advantage in the more compli¬ 
cated experiments because there were two of us so that different 
sets of wasps could be watched and counted at the same time; 
and for the same reason we gained in accuracy as each was 
ready to correct the other’s mistakes. 
The colors used were two shades of yellow, green, blue, pink 
and red. 
On August 7 at 8:30 a. m. we took a sheet of bright red paper 
and cutting in the middle of it a hole 41 inches in diameter (the 
diameter of the hole which served as entrance to the nest was 1J 
inches) we placed it above the nest in such a way that the en¬ 
trance was not at all impeded and could be plainly seen from 
above. This, and all the papers subsequently used measured 
241x201 inches. The red paper was the source of a good deal 
