success
exceeded all my hopes: I counted fifteen, fifteen of the transported
prisoners of the day before, storing their cells or building as though
nothing out of the way had happened. The weather had become more
and more threatening; and now the storm burst and was followed by a
succession of rainy days which prevented me from continuing.

The experiment suffices as it stands. Of some twenty Bees who had seemed
fit to make the long journey when I released them, fifteen at least had
returned: two within the first hour, three in the course of the evening
and the rest next morning. They had returned in spite of having the
wind against them and--a graver difficulty still--in spite of being
unacquainted with the locality to which I had transported them. There
is, in fact, no doubt that they were setting eyes for the first time
on those osier-beds of the Aygues which I had selected as the
starting-point. Never would they have travelled so far afield of their
own accord, for everything that they want for building and victualling
under the roof of my shed is within easy reach. The path at the foot of
the wall supplies the mortar; the flowery meadows surrounding my house
furnish nectar and pollen. Economical of their time as they are, they
do not go flying two miles and a half in search of what abounds at a
few yards from the nest. Besides, I see them daily taking their
building-materials from the path and gathering their harvest on the
wild-flowers, especially on the meadow sage. To all appearance, their
expeditions do not cover more than a radius of a hundred yards or so.
Then how did my exiles return? What guided them? It was certainly not
memory, but some special faculty which we must content ourselves with
recognizing by its astonishing effects without pretending to explain it,
so greatly does it transcend our own psychology.

CHAPTER 3. EXCHANGING THE NESTS.

Let us continue our series of tests with the Mason-bee of the Walls.
Thanks to its position on a pebble which we can move at will, the nest
of this Bee lends itself to most interesting experiments. Here is the
first: I shift a nest from its place, that is to say, I carry the pebble
which serves as its support to a spot two yards away. As the edifice
and its base form but one, the removal is performed without the smallest
disturbance of the cells. I lay the boulder in an exposed place where it
is well in view, as it was on its original site. The Bee returning f