98 SOURCES OF HONEY. 
collecting honey abroad in the fields. The day is warm 
and balmy. Suddenly there is the appearance of a 
shower, and distant thunder is heard. Immediately the 
bees come rushing in from the fields, in clouds. They 
cover the entire front of their hives, in their eagerness 
to gain a shelter from the approaching rain. Again, if 
the morning is cloudy and dark, with every appearance 
of rain, and you find the bees leaving their hives for the 
fields, you may be quite certain that rain is not near, 
and may expect soon to see the sun break forth and the 
clouds disperse. If on the other hand there is an 
appearance of rain, and the bees are quiet in their hives, 
it is quite sure to rain in a very short time. How won- 
derful are the workings of nature. How great the 
sagacity of the little, busy bee. Who dares say that 
this wonderful little insect does not possess the power 
of reasoning? But I am digressing from the subject. 
Bees, in their journeys to collect honey, seldom visit 
more than one species of flower, plant or shrub at one 
excursion ; and this is a wise provision of nature, for 
were it otherwise, and any and all species visited pro- 
miscuously, the vegetable world would be thrown into 
chaos, by the fertilizing dust of one species being im- 
parted to another, through the medium of the bee. 
Pollen as fast as collected is deposited in little basket- 
hike cavities on the inside of the bee’s posterior legs. It 
is packed in little pellets, varying in size from that of a 
pin’s head to a small pea. In color it is usually yellow, 
but sometimes green or red. Hundreds of bees may be 
