86 The Bee People. 
home—but not in a straight line. She 
makes a long curve to the right, and then 
to the left, to the right again, then to the 
left, and so on. 
I do not know why she does this, but 
no doubt there is a good reason for it. 
Perhaps it makes it harder for bee-eating 
birds to catch her. It certainly is not easy 
to follow her flight with the eye, until one 
has practised enough to become accustomed 
10: ik. 
When Miss Apis reaches home, she finds 
a large family. 
There are her sisters, to begin with. She 
generally has many thousands of sisters 
just like herself, and they are all named 
Apis Mellifica. 
This might be confusing if they called 
each other by name; that is, by the name 
we have given them. But, of course, they 
do not do that. 
I do not know what they call each other, 
but I do know that they are as much 
