At 12.30 she came out again, but seemed to have forgotten the way back; after some time, however, she found the door and went in.
Again:—August 24 at 7.20 a bee came through the postern: I fed her; and though she was not frightened or disturbed, when she had finished her meal she flew to the window and had evidently lost her way; so at 8 o'clock I in pity put her back myself.
August 29.—A bee came out to the honey at 10.10; at 10.12 she flew to the window, and remained buzzing about till 11.12, when, being satisfied that she could not find her way, I put her in.
Nay, even those who seemed to know the postern, if taken near the other window, flew to it, and seemed to have lost themselves.
This cost me a great many bees. Those which got into my room by accident continually died on the floor near the window.
These observations show that even when a bee is not carried from the hive to the honey, but herself flies to it, her sense of direction is not alone sufficient to enable her to find the way back to the hive—or, rather, to the unaccustomed entrance to the hive from which she had come out. Probably if the side window had been open, the bee would have returned to the hive round the corner of the house, and through the entrance to which she was most accustomed. But as it was she had to learn, by five or six journeys, the way between the postern entrance and the food.
But the following observation on a wasp is in this connection the most conclusive.
A marked wasp visited honey exposed in the room before mentioned. 'The next morning she came—
At 7.25, and fed till 7.28, when she began flying about the room and even into the next; so I thought it well to put her out of the window, when she flew straight away to her nest. My room, as already mentioned, had windows on two sides; and the nest was in the direction of a closed window, so that the wasp had to go out of her way in going out through the open one.
At 7.45 she came back. I had moved the glass containing the honey about two yards; and though it stood conspicuously, the wasp seemed to have much difficulty in finding it. Again she flew to the window in the direction of her nest, and I had to put her out, which I did at 8.2.