19 
THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND * 
juice secreted by aphides ; and, in fine, the juice of the 
bodies of nymphs and of eggs of bees themselves. 
When the industrious little creature has filled 
honey-bag with nectar, it proceeds to collect the pollen, 
of which it robs the flowers by brushing it oft with t 
feathery hairs with which its body is covered. As the 
honey is called the nectar, so this pollen, or the sub 
stance bee-bread, into which it is converted, may be 
called the ambrosia of the hive. Together they constitute 
the food and the drink of the population. 
When the bee has so rolled itself m this faima of tli 
blossoms of the garden and the field, that its who e 
body is so powdered with it, as to give it the peculiar 
colour of the species of flowers to which it happens to 
resort, it suspends its excursions, and sets aoout to 
brush its body with its legs, which, as already explained, 
are supplied with brushes for this express purpose 
Every particle of the flower thus brushed off is most 
carefully collected and kneaded into two little _ masses, 
which, are transferred from the fore to the. hmd legs, 
and there packed up into the baskets provided for its 
reception and transportation. _ . . P ., 
Naturalists generally are of opinion that m each ot its 
excursions a bee confines its foraging operations to a 
single species of flower. This explains the fact that the 
colour of their load after such excursions is uniform, 
depending on the particular species of flower which they 
have robbed of its sweets. Thus, according to Reaumur, 
some bees are observed to return loaded with red pellets 
on their thighs, others with yellow, others whitish, and 
others with green. ,, ^ 
Kirby observes, that it seems probable that the bee 
confines its operations in such excursions to flowers of 
the same species, and that the grains of pollen v nc i 
enter into the same mass should be homogeneous, and 
consequently fitted by their physical properties to cohere 
with greater facility and firmness. 
We come now to the matter of 
Hives: their Form and Material, 
best suited to make them. Mr. Cotton, in his peculiar 
