76 POLLEN OR BEE-BREAD. 
and raised upon blocks a half inch thick, or more; which gave the bees 
an opportunity to pass under the lower edges of the hives, from one 
to the other. And after they had united, and were laboring harmo- 
niously together, instead of all the bees alighting in front of the occu- 
pied hive, the bees that formerly occupied the forsaken hive still con- 
tinued to alight in front of and enter the latter; but instead of as- 
cending it they would turn and pass out, and across to the other 
hive, and deposit their loads, after which they would pass out in front 
in company with tho former occupants of the hive. From these cir- 
cumstances it appears to me that their sense of seeing is very imper- 
fect. If not, why did they continue to pass through their former 
habitation in this circuitous route, when it would have given them a 
much less distance to travel to have entered in front of the hive, in 
company with the first occupants of the hive. 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
POLLEN OR BEE-BREAD. 
Bez-Breap is the yellow or reddish substance collected by the bees, 
and carried into the hive on their thighs; it is the powdered particles 
discharged by the anthers of flowers, in warm, dry weather. It varies 
in color, from a pale yellow to a pale red. 
This substance was formerly supposed (and is by some at the pres- 
ent time) to be the prime constituent of wax, and gathered by the 
bees for the purpose of comb-building. But the experiments of Huber 
and Hunter, and even of others, have proved that wax, or the combs, 
is a secretion from the bodies of the working bees, and that the prin- 
cipal purpose for which they collect pollen, is to nourish or feed’ the 
embryo-bees. Dr. Bevan observes that ‘Huber was the first who 
suggested this idea, and it well accords with what we observe among 
other parts of the animal kingdom: birds, for instance, feed their young 
with different food from what they take themselves. Mr. Hunter ex- 
amined tbe stomachs of the maggot-bees and found farina in all, but 
