WHERE THE BEE SUCKS 229 
to be due as much to foreign matter as to its 
natural evil character. There is a peculiar growth 
on the bark of many trees where aphides congre- 
gate, which is known as soot-fungus. This and 
the honeydew get mingled together in a cimmerian 
slime, and, no doubt, the merest trace of it would 
serve to darken and spoil the purest honey. There 
seems to be no way for bee-keepers but to watch 
for the first chilly nights, as the honey-season 
draws towards its close; and then to be up early 
and get the surplus honey-chambers off the hives, 
before the bees have had a chance to spoil them. 
But the bee is no desperately early riser, for all 
her lofty place in the moral-maxim books. She 
generally waits until the morning sun has drunk 
up the night dews, and warmed the flower-calyces, 
before getting down to her work in earnest. The 
very early bees that may sometimes be seen wing- 
ing out into the first light of a summer’s morning, 
are probably only water-carriers. The water- 
supply is the day’s first and last care with each 
hive in the breeding season. Every bee-garden 
seems to have its regular watering-place, gener- 
ally on the oozy margin of some neighbouring 
pond; and here, in the early morning, and again 
towards late afternoon, the bees may be seen 
drinking in whole battalions, while the meridian 
hours of the day will find it all but deserted. 
Curiously, these water-fetching times coincide with 
the times when the nectar is least get-atable, or 
