ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the work of Karl von Frisch on the senses of bees, and their methods of communication. Quite recently he has made a discovery which may clear up a lot of the so-called mysteries of animal behaviour. Von Frisch found that bees returning from a good source of honey or pollen indicate its direction to their comrades by a peculiar dance. The bees certainly perceive forms and colours. Their colour sense is excellent, but their form sense is nothing like as good as our own or a bird's. When light passes through certain crystals it is of course bent out of its path. The electrical vibrations which constitute ordinary light are in all directions at right angles to its direction of travel. They might, for example, be sensitive to the earth's magnetism, like a compass. But the discovery concerning bees suggests that they may be aware of some directional quality in their surroundings to which men are insensitive.
