34 SAVAGE SUEVIVALS 



cated insect. Its home is in the Old World. It 

 was not found originally in America. The wild 

 bees of America are the swarms of domesticated 

 bees that have escaped to the wild state. The 

 honey-bee is now found domesticated in all lands 

 where flowers bloom and where the honey-making 

 season is long enough to enable it to store suffi- 

 cient sweets to last thru the winter. 



Bees live on ** bread'' and honey. The honey 

 is the nectar which flowers secrete and present to 

 the bee as compensation for the bee's services in 

 bringing about cross-fertilization. The honey is 

 sucked up and swallowed by the bee and carried 

 home in its crop, and afterwards regurgitated into 

 the honey cells. The ** bread" of the bee is the 

 pollen, which it gathers and carries home in the 

 hairy baskets of its hind legs. Some flowers, as 

 the rose, do not produce nectar at all, only pollen. 

 The fragrance of such flowers is in the petals or 

 leaves. In the eglantine (sweetbrier) the leaves 

 are more fragrant than the flowers. Wild bees 

 make their homes in hollow trees and rock cavi- 

 ties. 



Bees do not store honey in the tropics much, 

 because of the abundance of flowers the year 

 round. 



The social organization of the honey-bee is of a 

 very high order, higher than that of any verte- 

 brate animal, not even excepting man. 



The ** silk-worm'' is not a worm at all, but a 

 hahy moth. 



