224 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
faculty is strongly developed; but she seems to 
have very little else. Her first experiences are a 
succession of blunders. She appears not to know 
for certain where to look for the coveted sweets, 
and can be seen industriously searching the most 
unlikely places—crevices in walls, tufts of grass, 
or the leaves of a plant instead of its flowers. 
The fact that the nectar is hidden deep down in 
the cup of the flower, beyond its pollen-bearing 
mechanism, seems to dawn upon her only after 
much thought and many fruitless essays. 
It has been proved that bees will go as far as 
two or even three miles in their foraging journeys. 
The distance seems to vary according to the nature 
of the country. Bees in hilly districts appear to 
venture only short distances from home, while in 
flat country the foraging flights are more extended 
A bee-line has become proverbial for a straight 
course, but it is doubtful whether the bee ever 
makes a perfectly direct flight from point to point. 
The truth seems to be that there are well-defined 
air-paths out from and home to every bee-garden, 
and that these are continually thronged with bees 
going and returning throughout the working hours 
of the day. These aérial thoroughfares lie high 
above all but the tallest obstacles, so high indeed 
that the keenest sight will reveal nothing. Only 
the busy song of the travellers can be heard, like 
a river of music, far overhead. 
In the South Downcountry, where the isolated 
