had done, at the expense of strangely defihng 

 her own downy coat Though some of the; 

 dust from the little capsules had been spread 

 over the surface of the flower, the far greater 

 part of it had evidently fallen upon her own 

 back, and been retained there among the shag 

 of its covering. 



She once more placed herself on the 

 summit of a little twig, and soon began to 

 clear her body of this new gathered dust. It 

 was with great admiration that I observed 

 the readiness with which she executed this ; 

 it was not half a minute before her whole 

 coat was as clean and glossy as at first : and 

 what appeared more singular was, that not a 

 particle of the dust had fallen upon any of 

 the flowers about her, where it must have 

 been visible as easily as on the surface of that 

 it was taken from. 



A very laboured motion of the fore legs 

 of the Bee soon directed my eye thither, and 

 the whole business was then immediately ex- 

 plained : I found she had carefully brought 

 together every particle that she had wiped off 

 from her body, and formed it into a mass, 

 which she was now moulding into a flrmer tex- 



