21

THE HONEY-BEE IN NEW ZEALAND 19

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 its
honey-bag with nectar, it proceeds to collect the pollen,
of which it robs the flowers by brushing it off with the
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 in this farina of the
blossoms of the garden and the field, that its whole
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 about 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 hind legs,
and there packed up into the baskets provided for its
reception and transportation.
Naturalists are generally of opinion that in each of 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 o the particular species of flower which they
have robbed of its sweets. Thus, according to Reamur,
some bees are observed to return loaded with red pellets
on their thighs, others with yellow, others with 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 which
enter into the same mass should be homogenous, 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