Locusts and Wild Honey
by John Burroughs
Contents
| PREFACE |
| I. THE PASTORAL BEES |
| II. SHARP EYES |
| III. STRAWBERRIES |
| IV. IS IT GOING TO RAIN? |
| V. SPECKLED TROUT |
| VI. BIRDS AND BIRDS |
| VII. A BED OF BOUGHS |
| VIII. BIRDS’-NESTING |
| IX. THE HALCYON IN CANADA |
| INDEX |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| JOHN BURROUGHS From a photograph |
| WHIP-POOR WILL From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes |
| TROUT STREAM From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason |
| YELLOW BIRCHES From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason |
| LEDGES From a photograph by Herbert W. Gleason |
| KINGFISHER (colored) From a drawing by L. A. Fuertes |
PREFACE
I am aware that for the most part the title of my book is an allegory ratherthan an actual description; but readers who have followed me heretofore, Itrust, will not be puzzled or misled in the present case by any want ofliteralness in the matter of the title. If the name carries with it asuggestion of the wild and delectable in nature, of the free and ungarneredharvests which the wilderness everywhere affords to the observing eye and ear,it will prove sufficiently explicit for my purpose.
ESOPUS-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.
I
THE PASTORAL BEES
The honey-bee goes forth from the hive in spring like the dove fromNoah’s ark, and it is not till after many days that she brings back theolive leaf, which in this case is a pellet of golden pollen upon each hip,usually obtained from the alder or the swamp willow. In a country where maplesugar is made the bees get their first taste of sweet from the sap as it flowsfrom the spiles, or as it dries and is condensed upon the sides of the buckets.They will sometimes, in their eagerness, come about the boiling-place and beoverwhelmed by the steam and the smoke. But bees appear to be more eager forbread in the spring than for honey: their supply of this article, perhaps, doesnot keep as well as their stores of the latter; hence fresh bread, in the shapeof new pollen, is diligently sought for. My bees get their first supplies fromthe catkins of the willows. How quickly they find them out! If but one catkinopens anywhere