HONEY. 



by the feet, the bee disgorges the honey in large 

 drops from its mouth ; these, falling into the hole, 

 mix with the mass below : the bee, before it flies 

 off, new-models the crust, and closes up the hole. 

 This mode of proceeding is regularly adopted by 

 every bee that contributes to the general store. 



The power of regurgitation in the bee is very 

 remarkable : its alimentary organs, like those of 

 the pigeon, besides being subservient to the pur- 

 pose of nutriment, afford it a temporary store- 

 room or reservoir. Ruminating animals may be 

 considered as regurgitating animals, though in 

 them the operation is performed for different pur- 

 poses. In some it is exercised for the purpose 

 of digesting the food, in others for feeding the 

 young ; but in bees its use is to enable them to 

 disburden themselves 01 the honey which they 

 gather for the winter's store of the community. 



The finest flavoured and most delicate honey is 

 that which is collected from aromatic plants, and 

 has been stored in clean new cells : it has been 

 usually called virgin-honey, as though it were 

 elaborated by a fresh swarm of bees ; but this 

 is not essential to the perfection of honey, for, 

 provided the cells in which it is deposited have 

 never contained either brood or farina, it is not 

 material whether it have been collected by swarms 

 or by old stocks ; the season and the flowers 

 having been the same, the quality of the honey 



