30 THE PASTORAL BEES. 



continually depleted, and continually recruited. What 

 adventures they have by flood and field, and what 

 hair-breadth escapes ! A strong swarm during the 

 honey season loses, on an average, about four or five 

 thousand per month, or one hundred and fifty per 

 day. They are overwhelmed by wind and rain, 

 caught by spiders, benumbed by cold, crushed by 

 cattle, drowned in rivers and ponds, and in many 

 nameless ways cut off or disabled. In the spring 

 the principal mortality is from the cold. As the sun 

 declines they get chilled before they can reach home. 

 Many fall down outside the hive, unable to get in 

 with their burden. One may see them come utterly 

 spent and drop hopelessly into the grass in front of 

 their very doors. Before they can rest the cold has 

 stiffened them. I go out in April and May and pick 

 them up by the handfuls, their baskets loaded with 

 pollen, and warm them in the sun or in the house, or 

 by the simple warmth of my hand, until they can 

 crawl into the hive. Heat is their life, and an appar- 

 ently lifeless bee may be revived by warming him. 

 I have also picked them up while rowing on the 

 river and seen them safely to shore. It is amusing 

 to see them come hurrying home when there is a 

 thunder-storm approaching. They come piling in 

 till the rain is upon them. Those that are overtaken 

 by the storm doubtless weather it as best they can 

 in the sheltering trees or grass. It is not probable 

 that a bee ever gets lost by wandering into strange 

 and unknown parts. With their myriad eyes they see 



