20 BEHAVIOK OF HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 
or distal edge of the corbicula and is slowly covering the floor of this 
receptacle. (See fig. 8, 5, <?, and d.) In many instances the suc- 
cessive contributions remain for a time fairly separate, the whole 
mass being marked by furrows transverse to the long axis of the tibia. 
Sladen (1912, b) notes the interesting fact that in those rather 
exceptional cases when a bee gathers pollen from more than one 
species of flowers the resulting mass within the corbicula will show 
a stratification parallel to the distal end, a condition which could 
result only from the method of loading here indicated. 
As the pollen within the basket increases in amount it bulges out- 
ward, and projects downward below the lower edge of the basket. 
It is held in position by the long hairs which fringe the lateral sides 
of the basket, and its shape is largely determined by the form of 
these hairs and the direction in which they extend. When the basket 
is fully loaded the mass of pollen extends laterally on both sides of 
the tibia, but projects much farther on the posterior side, for on this 
side the bounding row of hairs extends outward, while on the anterior 
edge the hairs are more curved, folding upward and over the basket. 
As the mass increases in thickness by additions from below it is held 
in position by these long hairs which edge the basket. They are 
pushed outward and many of them become partly embedded in the 
pollen as it is pushed up from below. When the pollen grains are 
small and the whole mass is well moistened the marks made by some 
of the hairs will be seen on the sides of the load. (See fig. 9, a.) 
These scratches are also transverse in direction and they show that 
the mass has been increased by additions of pollen pushed up from 
below. 
Even a superficial examination of a heavily laden basket shows 
the fallacy of the supposition that the long lateral fringing hairs are 
used to comb out the pollen from the brushes of either the hind or 
middle legs by the crossing of these legs over the lateral edges of the 
baskets. They are far from sufficiently stiff to serve this purpose, 
and their position with relation to the completed load shows con- 
clusively that they could not be used in the final stages of the loading- 
process, for the pollen mass has completely covered many of them 
and its outer surface extends far beyond their ends. They serve 
merely to hold the pollen in place and to allow the load to project 
beyond the margins of the tibia. 
The auricle plays a very essential part in the process of loading 
the basket. This structure comprises the whole of the flattened 
proximal surface of the planta, except the joint of articulation itself, 
and it extends outward in a posterior direction a little beyond the 
remaining plantar edge. The surface of the auricle is covered over 
with many blunt, short spines and its lateral margin is bounded by 
a row of short rather pliable hairs, branched at their ends. When 
