EXTENT OF THE FLIGHT OF THE BEE. 421 



garden at Pagham, where they throve remarkably well, ami 

 yielded a rich harvest of honey. 



It has been stated by some of the encyclopedists, that the 

 flight of a bee extends to four miles, and this is said to have 

 been determined by the colour of the farina of certain plants 

 being seen on the legs of the bees, which did not grow within 

 the distance of four miles from the apiary. We, however, 

 consider this criterion to be very defective and indefinite, 

 for the colour of the farina of plants varies so little in its 

 shade, being almost universally of a yellowish tinge, that it 

 would almost amount to an impossibility to determine the 

 particular flowers from which it is gathered. It is true that 

 we have seen the pellets of farina on the legs of a bee of a 

 dark slaty colour, but it would be at best arriving at a ran- 

 dom kind of a conclusion to determine the extent of the flight 

 of the bee from the mere colour of the farina, unless it had 

 been unequivocally ascertained, that no flowers whatever 

 flourished in the immediate neighbourhood from which the 

 farina of such a particular colour could be obtained. We 

 had once an apiary situate about three miles from a range of 

 hills which were covered with heath, and knowing the rich- 

 ness of that shrub in honey, we purposed removing our 

 hives to the immediate vicinity of so rich a pasturage. 

 Previously, however, to our undertaking the transportation 

 of the hives, we determined to ascertain whether the heath 

 was within the range of the flight of our bees, for which 

 purpose we adopted the following expedient. We put some 

 flour in a small pepper-castor, and proceeded to the hills, 

 leaving a person with the hives to keep a strict watch upon 

 them, with the view of ascertaining whether any bees re- 

 turned to the hives sprinkled with flour. We were not 

 many minutes at the hills before we discovered a number 

 of bees collecting the honey, every one of which we be- 

 sprinkled well with the flour. On our return home, we 

 were informed that a considerable number of bees had re- 

 t 3 



