diff --git a/bson/__init__.py b/bson/__init__.py
index 883d517d2..2d6dbe3d1 100644
--- a/bson/__init__.py
+++ b/bson/__init__.py
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@ except ImportError:
 EPOCH_AWARE = datetime.datetime.fromtimestamp(0, utc)
 EPOCH_NAIVE = datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(0)
 
-EMPTY = b""
 
 BSONNUM = b"\x01" # Floating point
 BSONSTR = b"\x02" # UTF-8 string
diff --git a/pymongo/pool.py b/pymongo/pool.py
index 3e6970495..07803bfb4 100644
--- a/pymongo/pool.py
+++ b/pymongo/pool.py
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import time
 import threading
 import weakref
 
-from bson import EMPTY
 from pymongo import thread_util
 from pymongo.errors import ConnectionFailure
 
@@ -186,10 +185,10 @@ class SocketInfo(object):
             raise
 
     def __receive_data_on_socket(self, length):
-        message = EMPTY
+        message = b""
         while length:
             chunk = self.sock.recv(length)
-            if chunk == EMPTY:
+            if chunk == b"":
                 raise ConnectionFailure("connection closed")
 
             length -= len(chunk)