Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/53

 in this decline of the flowering season, recourse to the foul marsh and slimy pool, which they are charged with frequenting? Simply because the purposes for which they did frequent these unwholesome liquids have already been answered. The truth is, the Bees have recourse in spring, but generally speaking, in spring only, to dunghills and stagnant marshes, for the sake of the salts with which they are impregnated, and which their instinct teaches them are advantageous to their health after their long winter confinement. If we place before the Bees a portion of honey, and a portion of liquid drawn from a corrupt source, their choice will completely vindicate the purity of their taste, and their power of discrimination in the selection of their food.

It is not meant to be denied, however, that the sense of taste in Bees is ever at fault. This would be going in the face of some well authenticated instances of honey being injured, and even rendered dangerous, in consequence of the Bees feeding on noxious plants. Towards the close of the year, when flowers become scarce, and in those parts of the country where alders abound, and where onions and leeks are cultivated on a large scale, and allowed to run to seed, the Bees, from taste, or from necessity, or from anxiety to complete their winter stores, are seen to feed on these plants, which communicate to the honey a very disagreeable flavour. But this is not all. The fact stated by Xenophon in the retreat of the Ten Thousand, and confirmed by Diodorus Siculus, proves that there are plants in