176 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
more ample field; but the spectacles you will behold 
during our excursion will repay, I promise you, any de- 
lay or trouble it may occasion. 
When I consider the proceedings of these little crea- 
tures, both in the hive and out of it, they are so nume- 
rous and multifarious, that I scarcely know. where to be- 
gin. You have already, however, heard much of their 
internal labours, in the care and nurture of the young; 
the construction of their combs*; and their proceedings 
with respect to. their queens and their paramours. It 
will therefore change the scene a little, if we accompany 
them in their excursions to collect the various substances 
of which they have need®. On these occasions the prin- 
cipal object of the bees is to furnish themselves with 
three different materials:—the nectar of flowers, from 
which they elaborate honey and wax; the pollen or fer- 
@ Vor. I. 4th Ed. 375— and 484— 
> The following beautiful lines by Professor Smyth are extremely 
applicable to this part of a bee’s labours : 
“ Thou cheerful Bee! come, freely come, 
And travel round my woodbine bower 
Delight me with thy wandering hum, 
And rouse me from my musing hour ; 
Oh! try no more those tedious fields, 
Come taste the sweets my garden yields : 
The treasures of each blooming mine, 
The bud, the blossom,—all are thine. 
— 
© And careless of this noon-tide heat, 
ll follow as thy ramble guides ; 
To watch thee pause and chafe thy feet, 
And sweep them o’er thy downy sides : 
Then in a flower’s bell nestling lie, 
And all thy envied ardor ply ! 
Then o’er the stem, tho’ fair it grow, 
With touch rejecting, glance, and go. 
“ O Nature 
