12 BEHAVIOR OF HONEY BEE IN POLLEN COLLECTING. 
members are in action at once that it is impossible for the eye to 
follow all at the same time. However, long-continued observation, 
assisted by the study of instantaneous photographs, gives confidence 
that the statements recorded are accurate, although some movements 
may have escaped notice. 
To obtain pollen from corn the bee must find a tassel in the right 
stage of ripeness, with flowers open and stamens hanging from them. 
The bee alights upon a spike and crawls along it. clinging to the 
pendent anthers. It crawls over the anthers, going from one flower 
to another along the spike, being all the while busily engaged in the 
task of obtaining pollen. This reaches its body in several ways. 
As the bee moves over the anthers it uses its mandibles and tongue, 
biting the anthers and licking them and securing a considerable 
amount of pollen upon these parts. This pollen becomes moist and 
sticky, since it is mingled with fluid from the mouth. A considerable 
amount of pollen is dislodged from the anthers as the bee moves over 
them. All of the legs receive a supply of this free pollen and much 
adheres to the hairs which cover the body, more particularly to those 
upon the ventral surface. This free pollen is dry and powdery and 
is very different in appearance from the moist pollen masses with 
which the bee returns to the hive. Before the return journey this 
pollen must be transferred to the baskets and securely packed in them. 
After the bee has traversed a few flowers along the spike and has 
become well supplied with free pollen it begins to collect it from its 
body, head, and forward appendages and to transfer it to the pos- 
terior pair of legs. This may be accomplished while the bee is 
resting upon the flower or while it is hovering in the air before 
seeking additional pollen. It is probably more thoroughly and rap- 
idly accomplished while the bee is in the air, since all of the legs are 
then free to function in the gathering process. 
If the collecting bee is seized with forceps and examined after it 
has crawled over the stamens of a few flowers of the corn, its legs 
and the ventral surface of its body are found to be thickly powdered 
over with pollen. If the bee hovers in the air for a few moments 
and is then examined very little pollen is found upon the body or 
upon the legs, except the masses within the pollen baskets. While in 
the air it has accomplished the work of collecting some of the scat- 
tered grains and of storing them in the baskets, while others have 
been brushed from the body. 
In attempting to describe the movements by which this result is 
accomplished it will be best first to sketch briefly the roles of the 
three pairs of legs. They are as follows : 
(a) The first pair of legs remove scattered pollen from the head 
and the region of the neck, and the pollen that lias been moistened 
by fluid substances from the mouth. 
