Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees . 157 
plant, but that comes late. The flower of the gourd, cucumber, 
&c. they seem to be fond of. What they do collect must be the 
very loose stuff, just ready to be blown off to impregnate the 
female part of the flower ; and to shew that this is the case, we 
find bees impregnate flowers that have not the male part. It 
is in common of a yellow colour, but that of very different 
shades, often of an orange ; and when we see bees collecting 
it on bushes that have a great many flowers, so as to furnish a 
complete load, it is then of the colour of the farina of that bush. 
It is curious to see them deposite this substance in the cell. On 
viewing the hives, we often see bees with this substance on 
their legs, moving along on the combs, as if looking out for 
the cell to deposite it in. They will often walk over a cell 
that has some deposited in it, but shall leave that, and try an- 
other, and so on till they fix ; which made me conceive that 
each bee had its own cell. When they come to the intended 
cell, they put their two hind legs into it, with the two fore legs 
and the trunk out on the mouth of the neighbouring cell, and 
then the tail, or belly, is thrust down into the intended cell ; 
they then bring the leg under the belly, and turning the point 
of the tail to the outside of the leg, where the farina is, they 
shove it off by the point of the tail. When it is thus shoved off 
both legs, the bee leaves it, and the two pieces of farina may be 
seen lying at the bottom of the cell : another bee comes almost 
immediately, and creeping into the cell, continues about five 
rhinutes, kneading and working it down into the bottom, or 
spreads it over what was deposited there before, leaving it a 
smooth surface. 
It is of a consistency like paste ; burns slightly, and gives a 
kind of unusual smell, probably from having been mixed with 
