22 THE HUMBLE-BEE 1 
brush of the right leg transfers its pollen to the 
corbicula of the left leg, and wzce versa, but he 
goes on to say that the transfer is effected by the 
metatarsus scraping its brush on the upper edge 
of the tibia.' My own belief is that the pollen is 
scraped off the metatarsal brush by a comb, situated 
at the end of the tibia on the inside, into a concave 
receiver there. When the leg is straightened a pro- 
jection on the metatarsus called the auricle enters 
the receiver, compresses the pollen, and pushes it 
out on to the lower end of the corbicula, where there 
is a break in the surrounding wall of hair, and 
plasters it to the mass of pollen already collected in 
the corbicula. Finally, the metatarsus of the middle 
leg is used to pat the pollen down on the corbicula. 
This opinion is supported by (1) the structure of 
the parts, (2) the fact that when the bees are collect- 
ing pollen from the flowers they rub their hind-legs 
together in a longitudinal direction and do not cross 
them, and (3) an examination I made of the load of 
a honey-bee, which consisted partly of white and 
partly of orange-coloured pollen. The orange pollen 
(which had evidently been gathered last, because the 
metatarsal bushes were filled with orange pollen) 
was found only on that part of the corbicula that 
was nearest to the auricle, where it had been forced 
in as a wedge between the white pollen and the 
corbicula, causing the whole mass of pollen to swell 
-and rise and also to buckle in the middle. The 
‘outer side of the lump of pollen was tinged on the 
1 Bees and Bee-keeping, by F. R. Cheshire, 1888, vol. i. page 131. 
