12 THE WORK OF THE BEE. 



and the way he contrived to find out the truth was as 

 follows : In the first place, he got a few of his bees to 

 come to some honey which he put ready for them at 

 no great distance from their hive. He then marked 

 one of the bees with a small spot of red paint, and 

 another with perhaps a spot of blue ; and thus knew 

 his little friends again quite well when they came 

 back for some more of his sweets. 



Then he watched them carefully, putting down on 

 paper the exact time when, for instance, his little 

 red-painted friend came to the honey, and how long 

 it was there feeding itself, or gathering its store to 

 take home, and again noting when it flew away, and 

 when it came back. So he watched it all through 

 the day, and for days together, and thus knew at 

 last how many journeys and visits to the honey his 

 little bee made in the course of the day. 



Then he did the same with other bees, and so at 

 last by this means could pretty well guess what is 

 generally the daily work of a bee. Sometimes, for 

 one cause or another, his bee did not make so many 

 journeys as at other times, but, generally speaking, its 

 day's work was something as follows : — It would come 

 to the honey very early, at six o'clock, or earlier ac- 

 cording to the weather. It would then stay at the 

 honey about two minutes loading itself, and then, 

 flying away, would be gone about six minutes, in 

 which time it went home, unloaded what it carried, 

 and made its way back. Then again, it immediately 

 began to load itself once more, taking about the same 

 time, and going off again as at first. 



This would go on hour after hour, so that perhaps 



