290 The Poets and Natitre. 



William Morris too has " o'er the bindweed the brown 

 bee passes." Or is this only another form of the " brown 

 bird," so frequent in his verse ? 



There is also the " mountain-bee." For instance : 



" When hums the mountain-bee in May's glad ear." Wordsworth. 



' ' The mountain-bee was roving with his minstrelsy across 

 The scented wild weeds." Campbell. 



" Wild as a mountain-bee." Hurdis. 



Can this be a poetic " variety " only, like the " mountain- 

 lark " (possibly an error in sound for " mounting lark," which 

 is so very common a phrase in verse), or " mountain- wolf," 

 as superadding a special " wildness " to the species ? 



The "poetical" character of the bee is summed up 

 excellently in Churchill's " Gotham " : 



" The hive is up in arms, expert to teach, 

 Nor proudly to be taught unwilling ; each 

 Seems from her fellow a new zeal to catch ; 

 Strength in her limbs, and on her wings despatch, 

 The bee goes forth ; from herb to herb she flies, 

 From flow'r to flow'r, and loads the lab'ring thighs, 

 With treasured sweets, robbing those flow'rs which, left, 

 Find not themselves made poorer by the theft. 

 Ne'er doth she flit on pleasure's silken wing, 

 Ne'er doth she loit'ring let the bloom of spring 

 Unrifled pass, and on the downy breast 

 Of some fair flower indulge untimely rest. 

 Ne'er doth she, drinking deep of those rich dews 

 Which chvmist night prepared, that faith abuse 

 Due to the hive, and selfish in her toils, 

 To her own private use convert the spoils. 

 Love of the stock first called her forth to roam, 

 And to the stock she brings her booty home." 



This loyalty finds frequent recognition. . Thus in Crabbe 



" Like wounded bees that at their home arrive, 

 Slowly and weak but labouring for the hive." 



So in Gay's fable of "the degenerate bees," when certain 



