ent which he had always longed to make with Pigeons
and which he had always neglected making, absorbed as he was by other
interests. This experiment, he thought, I might attempt with my Bees.
Substitute the insect for the bird; and the problem remained the same. I
quote from his letter the passage referring to the trial which he wished
made:

'Allow me to make a suggestion in relation to your wonderful account
of insects finding their way home. I formerly wished to try it with
pigeons; namely, to carry the insects in their paper cornets about
a hundred paces in the opposite direction to that which you intended
ultimately to carry them, but before turning round to return, to put the
insects in a circular box with an axle which could be made to revolve
very rapidly first in one direction and then in another, so as to
destroy for a time all sense of direction in the insects. I have
sometimes imagined that animals may feel in which direction they were at
the first start carried.'

This method of experimenting seemed to me very ingeniously conceived.
Before going west, I walk eastwards. In the darkness of their paper
bags, the mere fact that I am moving them gives my prisoners a sense of
the direction in which I am taking them. If nothing happened to disturb
this first impression, the insect would be guided by it in returning.
This would explain the homing of my Mason-bees carried to a distance of
two or three miles amid strange surroundings. But, when the insects have
been sufficiently impressed by their conveyance to the east, there comes
the rapid twirl, first this way round, then that. Bewildered by all
these revolutions first in one direction and then in another, the insect
does not know that I have turned round and remains under its original
impression. I am now taking it to the west, when it believes itself
to be still travelling towards the east. Under the influence of this
impression; the insect is bound to lose its bearings. When set free, it
will fly in the opposite direction to its home, which it will never find
again.

This result seemed to me the more probable inasmuch as the statements
of the country-folk around me were all of a nature to confirm my hopes.
Favier (The author's gardener and factotum. Cf. "The Life of the
Fly": chapter 4.--Translator's Note.), the very man for this sort of
information, was the first to put me on the track. He told me that, when
people want to move a Cat from one farm to anoth