The Project Gutenberg EBook of Locusts and Wild Honey, by John Burroughs

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Title: Locusts and Wild Honey

Author: John Burroughs

Release Date: November 14, 2006 [EBook #6355]
[First posted on November 29, 2002]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY ***

This etext was produced by Jack Eden <jackeden@yahoo.com>

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BURROUGHS
WITH PORTRAITS AND MANY ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME IV

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY

PREFACE

I am aware that for the most part the title of my book is an allegory
rather than an actual description; but readers who have followed me
heretofore, I trust, will not be puzzled or misled in the present case
by any want of literalness in the matter of the title. If the name
carries with it a suggestion of the wild and delectable in nature, of
the free and ungarnered harvests which the wilderness everywhere
affords to the observing eye and ear, it will prove sufficiently
explicit for my purpose.

ESOPUS-ON-HUDSON, N. Y.

CONTENTS
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

LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY

I

THE PASTORAL BEES

The honey-bee goes forth from the hive in spring like the dove from
Noah's ark, and it is not till after many days that she brings back the
olive 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 maple sugar is made the bees get their first taste of sweet from
the sap as it flows from the spiles, or as it dries and is condensed
upon the sides of the buckets. They wil