80 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



are superstitious enough to put the hives in mourning, to 

 pacify their sorrowing occupants ; imagining that, unless 

 this is done, the bees will never afterwards prosper ! It 

 has frequently been asserted, that they sometimes take 

 their loss so much to heart, as to alight upon the coffin 

 whenever it is exposed. A clergyman told me, that he 

 attended a funeral, where, as soon as the coffin was 

 brought from the house, the bees gathered upon it so as 

 to excite much alarm. Some years after this occurrence, 

 being engaged in varnishing a table, the bees alighted 

 upon it in such, numbers, as to convince him, that love of 

 varnish, rather than sorrow or respect for the dead, was 

 the occasion of their conduct at the funeral. How many 

 superstitions, believed even by intelligent persons, might 

 be as easily explained, if it were possible to ascertain as 

 fully all the facts connected with them! 



CHAPTER VI. 



POLLEN, OR " BEE-BKEAD." 



POLLEN is gathered by the bees from blossoms, and is 

 indispensable to the nourishment of their young repeat- 

 ed experiments having proved that brood cannot be raised 

 without it. It is very rich in the nitrogenous sub- 

 stances which are not contained in honey, and without 

 which ample nourishment could not be furnished for the 

 development of the growing bee. Dr. Hunter, on dissecting 

 some immature bees, found that their stomachs contained 

 pollen, but not a particle of honey. 



We are indebted to Huber for the discovery, that pol- 

 len is the principal food of the young bees. As large 



