lls, which are only partly provisioned, and empty them of
their honey with a wad of cotton held in my forceps. From time to
time, as the Bee brings new provisions, I repeat the cleansing-process,
sometimes clearing out the cell entirely, sometimes leaving a thin layer
at the bottom. I do not observe any pronounced hesitation on the part of
my plundered victims, even though they surprise me at the moment when
I am draining the jar; they continue their work with quiet industry.
Sometimes, two or three threads of cotton remain clinging to the
walls of the cells: the Bees remove them carefully and dart away to a
distance, as usual, to get rid of them. At last, a little sooner or a
little later, the egg is laid and the lid fastened on.

I break open the five closed cells. In one, the egg has been laid on
three millimetres of honey (.117 inch.--Translator's Note.); in two, on
one millimetre (.039 inch.--Translator's Note.); and, in the two others,
it is placed on the side of the receptacle drained of all its contents,
or, to be more accurate, having only the glaze, the varnish left by the
friction of the honey-covered cotton.

The inference is obvious: the Bee does not judge of the quantity of
honey by the elevation of the surface; she does not reason like a
geometrician, she does not reason at all. She accumulates so long as she
feels within her the secret impulse that prompts her to go on collecting
until the victualling is completed; she ceases to accumulate when that
impulse is satisfied, irrespective of the result, which in this case
happens to be worthless. No mental faculty, assisted by sight, informs
her when she has enough, or when she has too little. An instinctive
predisposition is her only guide, an infallible guide under normal
conditions, but hopelessly lost when subjected to the wiles of the
experimenter. Had the Bee the least glimmer of reason would she lay her
egg on the third, on the tenth part of the necessary provender? Would
she lay it in an empty cell? Would she be guilty of such inconceivable
maternal aberration as to leave her nurseling without nourishment? I
have told the story; let the reader decide.

This instinctive predisposition, which does not leave the insect free to
act and, through that very fact, saves it from error, bursts forth under
yet another aspect. Let us grant the Bee as much judgment as you please.
Thus endowed, will she be capable of meting out the future's larva's
portion? By no