10 BRITISH BEES. 



etc., yet many which are not thus to be distinguished, 

 will have to wait long for their special appellation. 



The first breathings of spring bring forth the bees. 

 Before the hedge-rows and the trees have burst their 

 buds, and expanded their yet delicate green leaves to 

 the strengthening influence of the air, and whilst only 

 here and there the white blossoms of the blackthorn 

 sparkle around, and patches of chickweed spread their 

 bloom in attractive humility on waste bits of ground in 

 corners of fields, they are abroad. Their hum will be 

 heard in some very favoured sunny nook, where the 

 precocious primrose spreads forth its delicate pale blos- 

 som, in the modest confidence of conscious beauty, to 

 catch the eye of the sun, as well as 



" Daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, 

 And take the winds of March with beauty." Shakspeare. 



The yellow catkins of the sallow, too, are already 

 swarmed around by bees, the latter being our northern 

 representative of the palm which heralded " peace to 

 earth and goodwill to man." The bees thus announce 

 that the business of the year has begun, and that the 

 lethargy of winter is superseded by energetic activity. 



The instinctive impulse of the cares of maternity 

 prompt the wild bees to their early assiduity, urging 

 them to their eager quest of these foremost indicators 

 of the renewed year. The firstling bees are forthwith 

 at their earnest work of collecting honey and pollen, 

 which, kneaded into a paste, are to become both the 

 cradle and the sustenance of their future progeny. 



Wherever we investigate wonderful Nature, we observe 

 the most beautiful adaptations and arrangements, 

 everywhere the correlations of structure with function ; 



