THE BEE. 



segments. On these the plates of wax are formed, and are found 

 upon them in different states so as to be more or less perceptible. 



151. Observe a bee, says Kirby, that has alighted on a flower. 

 The hum produced by the motions of her wings ceases, 

 and her work begins. In an instant she unfolds her tongue, 

 which was previously rolled up under her head. With what 

 rapidity does she dart this organ between the petals and the 

 stamina ! At one time she extends it to its full length, then she 

 contracts it ; she moves it about in all directions, so that it may 

 be applied to the concave and convex surface of the petal, and 

 sweep them both, and thus by a virtuous theft, she robs it of aU 

 its nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps herself in a 

 state of constant vibratory motion. 



Flowers, though the chief, are not the only sources from which 

 the bee derives the material of honey and wax. She will also eat 

 sugar in every form, treacle, the juice secreted by aphides ; and, 

 in fine, the juice of the bodies of nymphs and of eggs of bees 

 themselves, as already explained. 



152. When the industrious little creature has filled its honey- 

 bag with nectar, it proceeds to collect the pollen, of which it 

 robs the flowers by brushing it off with the feathery hairs with 

 which its body is covered. As the honey is called the nectak, so 

 this pollen, or the substance bee-bread, into which it is converted, 

 may be called the ambeosia of the hive. Together they con- 

 stitute the food and the drink of the population. 



When the bee has so rolled itself in this farina of the blossoms 

 of the garden and the field, that its whole body is so powdered 

 with it, as to give it the peculiar colour of the species of flowers 

 to which it happens to resort, it suspends its excursions, and sets 

 about to brush its body with its legs, which, as already explained, are 

 supplied with brushes for this express purpose. Every particle of 

 the flower thus brushed off is most carefully collected and kneaded 

 up into two little masses, which are transferred from the fore to 

 the hind legs, and there packed up into the baskets provided for 

 its reception and transportation. 



Naturalists generally are of opinion that in each of its excur- 

 sions a. bee confines its foraging operations to a single species 

 of flower. This explains the fact that the colour of their load 

 after such excursions is uniform, depending on the particular 

 species of flower which they have robbed of its sweets. Thus, 

 according to Reaumur, some bees are observed to return loaded 

 with red pellets on their thighs, others with yellow, others 

 whitish, and others with green. 



Kirby observes, that it seems probable that the bee confines its 

 operations in such excursions to flowers of the same species, and 

 78 



