26 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



It is a voice out of the past, for the guns that spoke it bear the 

 initials and crown of C. R. S., that is Carolus Rex Succire, and the 

 date 1665 ; and the fortress itself is the island of Janjira, and we are 

 here in touch with the ] 7th century. But if I were to tell you of 

 all the other things that are to be seen hero and hereabouts, we 

 should, I think, be in touch with the 20th before the end of the 

 chapter; so for the present I must stop. 



OUR IIYMENOPTERA. 

 By Robert C. Wroughton. 



The principal object of this paper is to try to awaken an interest 

 in a group of insects, mostly small and with little in their appear- 

 ance to catch the eye ; but regarding which nevertheless it is the 

 simple truth to say that of the living inhabitants of this earth they 

 rank next to ourselves in point of intelligence. The wonderful 

 instincts of the Honey Bee are common property, and we all know 

 that some kinds of ants keep slaves, while others herd cows ; but 

 many points in the habits of even the common house ants are 

 mysteries still, and of the ways of the countless Wasps, Ichneumons, 

 Mason Bees, Leaf-cutters, and others of the tribe which swarm 

 about our houses, and build their mud huts on the walls, or take 

 possession of key-holes, and rear their families under our very eyes, 

 we know absolutely nothing at all. It is not tint you and I know 

 nothing : nobody does. About the great majority of these insects 

 nothing has ever been recorded. It would be a lasting glory to 

 this Society if we could give the world some account of the habits 

 and life-history of our local species, and it would be a lasting 

 source of delight to every individual member to got once for all 

 thoroughly interested in such a subject ; but at the outset there 

 is a difficulty which deters us all, a barrier which few have the 

 means or the leisure to surmount. It is this, that if wo make a 

 collection, we cannot name our specimens, and if we make observa- 

 tions, we cannot record our facts without names. The classi- 

 fication of the Indian Hymenoptera is a pathless waste, without a 

 book to light us through it, or a museum to which we can go for 

 guidance. In these circumstances there is only one thing to be 



