ing for something to locate it by. I was the nearest
object, and the thoughtful worker buzzed in front of my face and took
a good stare at me, and then flew up on to the top of an oak on the
side of the open spot in the centre of which the honey-box was.
Keeping a keen watch, after a minute or two of rest or wing-cleaning,
I saw it fly in wide circles round the tops of the trees nearest the
honey-box, and, after apparently satisfying itself, make a bee-line
for the hive. Looking endwise on the line of flight, I saw that what
is called a bee-line is not an absolutely straight line, but a line in
general straight made of many slight, wavering, lateral curves. After
taking as true a bearing as I could, I waited and watched. In a few
minutes, probably ten, I was surprised to see that bee arrive at the
end of the outleaning limb of the oak mentioned above, as though that
was the first point it had fixed in its memory to be depended on in
retracing the way back to the honey-box. From the tree-top it came
straight to my head, thence straight to the box, entered without the
least hesitation, filled up and started off after the same preparatory
dressing and taking of bearings as before. Then I took particular
pains to lay down the exact course so I would be able to trace it to
the hive. Before doing so, however, I made an experiment to test the
worth of the impression I had that the little insect found the way
back to the box by fixing telling points in its mind. While it was
away, I picked up the honey-box and set it on the stake a few rods
from the position it had thus far occupied, and stood there watching.
In a few minutes I saw the bee arrive at its guide-mark, the
overleaning branch on the tree-top, and thence came bouncing down
right to the spaces in the air which had been occupied by my head and
the honey-box, and when the cunning little honey-gleaner found nothing
there but empty air it whirled round and round as if confused and
lost; and although I was standing with the open honey-box within fifty
or sixty feet of the former feasting-spot, it could not, or at least
did not, find it.

Now that I had learned the general direction of the hive, I pushed on
in search of it. I had gone perhaps a quarter of a mile when I caught
another bee, which, after getting loaded, went through the same
performance of circling round and round the honey-box, buzzing in
front of me and staring me in the face to be able to recognize me; but