NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS. 283 



country Bees are not found in a wild state, though it is not uncom- 

 mon for swarms to stray from their proprietors. But these stray 

 swarms do not spread colonies through our woods, as they are said to 

 do in America. In the remoter parts of that continent there are 

 no wild Bees : they precede civilization ; and thus, when the In- 

 dians observe a swarm, they say * The white man is coming !' " 



Washington Irving has given an account of the progress which 

 the Honey Bee is making westward in America ; and the same fact 

 is mentioned by Bartram in his Travels through N. and S. Caro- 

 li?ia, Georgia, E. and W. Florida, &c., 1791* " In conversation 

 with a Dr. Grant, in company with whom he happened for a short 

 time to travel, Bartram inquired how it was that westward, among 

 the Creek Indians, he had seen no Bees ? Dr. Grant replied that 

 there were few or none west of the Isthmus of Florida, and but one 

 hive in Mobile, which was lately brought from Europe, the English 

 supposing there were none in the country, not finding any when 

 they took possession after the Spanish and French. 1 1 have,' says 

 our traveller, i been assured by the traders that there are no Bees in 

 West Florida, which to me seems extraordinary and almost incredi- 

 ble, since they are so numerous all along the eastern coast, from 

 Nova Scotia to East Florida, even in the wild forest, as to be 

 thought, by the generality of the inhabitants, aborigines of this 

 continent.' At the present time the Honey Bee is abundant 

 throughout the United States, both as a denizen of the forest and a 

 dependant on man. Generally speaking, the settler in the back 

 woods prefers the precarious but luscious supply afforded by those 

 swarms which have deserted man, and taken up their abode in fis- 

 sures of rocks or hollows of trees, to the more regular but less abun- 

 dant supply from hives of his own." — Entomological Magazine, iii., 

 423. 



Saw Flies ( Tenlhredinidoz ) , p. 152. — As Mr. Rennie's account 

 of the Saw Flies is imperfect, though correct so far as it goes, I shall 

 here introduce Mr. James FennelFs paper on Trichiosoma lucorum, 

 which was read some time ago before the London Natural History 

 Society — a society now no longer in existence : — " Trichiosoma lu- 

 corum is an interesting insect, belonging to the division Mandibu- 

 lata, order Hymenoptera, and family Tenthredinidse. The Tenthre- 

 dinidse, commonly called Saw Flies, in their history, are very enter- 

 taining to the entomologist j while, in their natural propensities, 

 they are regarded as destructive by the gardener, whose trees and 

 plants are frequently much defoliated by the larvsp, as also by the 

 parent fly, who cuts deep fissures in the branches by means of its 



