BEK BASKETS. 199 



either resting or still busied iu domestic occupation. Erom 

 four to ten in the morning are, in the warmer months, the 

 usual working hours of bees; but in the spring, or when 

 newly entered on the occupation of a hive, they labour abroad 

 incessantly from morn till evening. 



A sprinkling of workers have, however, kept on wing ; and 

 close at hand, from a border of mignionette, we hear the 

 voice of the " Oriental Deburah," humming cheerfully of 

 pleasure mingled with labour; and who in this busy little 

 creature can doubt their union, as we see her rolling amidst 

 her golden riches, adroitly brushing the precious dust from off 

 her antlers into the curious panniers with which her thighs are 

 furnished to receive it ? 



Now, her baskets are full laden, heaped with orange pollen 

 high above their brims ; but an elastic fringe of hairs by which 

 these are surrounded hinders their contents from being over- 

 turned. Our collector's task is completed for the morning, 

 and thus laden without, and doubtless lined within, by a full 

 measure of the nectared juices, " sucked from buds and bells," 

 she takes wing, and makes so light of all her lading, that 

 straight as an arrow from a bow (and eke as swiftly) she cuts 

 the air, even in the wind's eye, in the exact direction of her 

 straw -built home. 



How is her unerring flight directed ? Kirby thinks it is her 

 senses, aided by memory, which conduct the bee in her return- 

 ing course. But surely no senses with which we are acquainted, 



VOL. II. N 



