THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 119 



winging his way over the fields and gardens, alighting 

 upon every favourite flower, and drinking fropa each a 

 portion of their nectar. For this purpose the Bee is 

 provided with a most singular apparatus. Its tongue 

 is so constructed as to penetrate into every recess of 

 the flower where the honey lies, and this is received 

 into a bag capable of great inflation, previous to its 

 being swallowed a)acl consigned to the honey stomach. 

 Its thighs are also so formed as to be capable some- 

 times of carrying home to its hive a load of the pollen, 

 or yellow dust of flowers, which is necessary for the 

 food of the young grubs ; and at other times for the 

 collection of a gummy substance called propolis, which 

 is used as a cement for various purposes connected with 

 the hive. This substance which is collected generally 

 from the poplar, birch, or willow is used to stop up the 

 chinks of the hive, but sometimes it is employed by the 

 Bees in a still more ingenious manner. * They are ex- 

 tremely solicitous to remove such insects, or foreign 

 bodies, as happen to get admission into their hive. 

 When so light as not to exceed their power, they first 

 kill the insect with their stings, and then drag it out with 

 their teeth. But it sometimes happens that an ill-fated 

 slug creeps into the hive ; this is no sooner perceived 



