APIS. 351 



variously estimated at from one to three miles, and they 

 make about ten a day. The bees, in their temporary 

 distribution of labour, are something like the Indians 

 which have caste, among whom each service has its spe- 

 cial servitor, who never undertakes or interferes with 

 the duties of another. The collection of pollen is almost 

 as needful to the well-being of a hive as honey, this 

 being used exclusively as the basis of the sustenance of 

 the new brood in their larva state, in all their conditions 

 of worker, drone, and queen, the perfect bee itself never 

 partaking of it. It is variously commingled upon its 

 application to use with secretions of their own, which 

 convert it into bee bread or royal jelly, as the case may 

 be, to fit it for its special employment, which is done by 

 the nurse-bees, who diligently attend to the nurture of 

 all the young. The cells for storing this material are 

 not so numerous as the honey cells, and they are jotted 

 about without any distinct order, amongst them. When 

 a bee arrives with her store of pollen on the edge of one 

 of these cells, she turns round with her back to it and 

 thrusts it in as fast as she can free it from her legs, both 

 by their aid and the twisting about of her abdomen, and 

 then, like the honey -gatherer, commences another jour- 

 ney. As soon as she is gone, another bee manipulates 

 it with a small stock of honey, and packs it closely in. 

 Whilst all this is doing, the set which watch the condi- 

 tion of the hive, like surveyors, to apply repairs where 

 necessary, or to add strength and further support to the 

 suspended cakes of comb, impatiently await the return 

 of the collectors of propolis ; this they tear from their 

 shanks as fast as they arrive and as quickly as they can, 

 for it rapidly hardens, especially in fine hot weather, 

 and they convey it away for their requirements, whilst 



