his preëmption right to the sole occupation of the flowers with them, he matched his vengeful speed and tactics against a score of humming-birds, proving himself equal to his undertaking. Besides these emprises of valor and speed, I subjected him to a test of my guiding improvements to which he not only submitted in freedom from irritability, but seemed to recognize the new sensations and eccentric effects as a pleasing supplement to his involuntary powers, superseding in part the necessity of volition. Desiring that he might become accustomed to my guiding presence, and familiar with my person, I exposed myself as often as possible to his own and consort’s eyes, and on their return to the cell at nightfall, I felt certain that they had accepted me as an attached presage for good. As in oft repeated subjection to deleterious influences, the narcotic effluvia of the cell was far less offensive than on the previous night. “With the dawn of the third morning the bees rose to their line and settled in descent upon the flowers in bloom on the vines subject to the previous day’s levy. As if in anticipation of my intention, the usual four cargoes were dispatched in less than an hour, then both circled upward to the line for homeward flight, when, to their astonishment, I turned the lead of the male to the westward. This deviation from ancestral custom, and sequent habits, aroused the most obstinate resistance, which after several pseudo starts succeeded in baffling my intention, and but for the fortunate discovery of the cause, which was the fouling of the sinister guiding line, I should have been obliged to succumb to the instinctive obstinacy transmitted for the preservation of formalistic routine. With hazardous determination I succeeded in righting it, notwithstanding the increased velocity of their homeward flight, accelerated by the instinctive impetus from the imparted zest of their return to the line of old habits. When again subject to my control, the course of the male was changed to a northwesterly direction, but the female coaxingly endeavored to turn him back with the voice of her wings, as she kept abreast in equal flight. Finding it impossible, she reluctantly resumed her station in the rear, yielding protestingly to his lead. At first a natural feeling deterred me from casting a look below through fear of being surprised with giddiness, but gradually this passed away under the exhilarating elasticity of the air, which appeared to raise my spirits to an equality with my ambitious aspirations. Presumptuous mortality even ventured to cast a scornful glance upon things mundane; when lo! in advance, rising to the bee line I discovered a meroptic bee-eater which dissolved in fear my exultations.