Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/267

Rh flower at a time, visiting hundreds of blossoms in succession, and passing over other species that may be mixed with them."

—"The curious habit of the Apidæ of visiting one kind of flower only during any single excursion."

—"So far as Table I. goes, it will be seen that the Hive-Bee is perfectly methodical in its habits."

—"The Diptera exhibit greater constancy [than butterflies], though by no means absolute. A much greater degree of constancy is manifested by the Apidæ, and this becomes all but absolute in the Hive-Bee."

It is generally agreed that the Hive-Bee exhibits this phenomenon of constancy in the highest degree. In my own experience, the Wild Bees which I have had the opportunity of observing have shown a much greater tendency to pass from one species of flower to another than the Hive-Bee.

The following notes refer to Apis mellifica only. Each group of observations was made during one period of watching, extending sometimes to an hour and a half. They were noted in a garden during March of the present year:—