Let us now follow one of the pollen-gathering bees on her quest of bee-flour, which is so necessary for feeding the inhabitants of the hive. Having first taken a careful survey of the position of the hive and its surroundings, our little worker flies off at top speed to the hillside or the orchards where, it may be, the fruit trees are in full bloom. On her way, perhaps, she will decide what kind of pollen is to be gathered, for different kinds of pollen are kept quite separate, just as our own flours are separated. It remains a mystery why bees should keep the different pollens apart, as it seems to us that it would not matter much if they were mixed, but no doubt the bees know better than we do. Although buttercups may be scarce, and though the hedges are laden with hawthorn blossom, yet if the gathering bee has started to collect buttercup pollen, she will pass by the hawthorn and search diligently for buttercups in the adjoining meadows. [Illustration: PLATE XXIII Storing the pollen in cells] Arriving at the flower, the little worker alights and moves about it, so that very soon her hairy body becomes covered with pollen, as shown in the _frontispiece_. Although she was a brown bee when she alighted on the flower, now she is all golden yellow, and looks like a dusty miller. It is here that the brushes and combs with which the legs are furnished come in useful, and after two or three flowers have been visited, we may see her brushing down her body, and combing the pollen grains out of the hairs in which they are entangled. The collected pollen is then moistened with a tiny drop of honey, and kneaded into little round pellets, which are placed in the pollen baskets. This being done, the bee flies on and on, visiting other flowers, until her baskets are quite full. Sometimes the bee gathers more than can be carried in her baskets, so she returns to the hive with her body smothered in gaily-coloured pollen.