526 INSECTS ABROAD. 



engaged are wonderful. They first scrape the clay with their 

 mandibles ; the small portions gathered are then cleared by the 

 anterior paws and passed to the second pair of feet, which in 

 their turn convey them to the large foliated expansions of the 

 hind shanks which are adapted normally in Bees, as everyone 

 knows, for the collection of pollen. The middle feet put the 

 growing pellets of mortar on the hind legs to keep them in a 

 compact shape as the particles are successively added. The 

 little hodsmen soon have as much as they can carry, and they 

 then fly off. 



" I was for some time puzzled to know what the Bees did with 

 the clay ; but I had afterwards plenty of opportunity for ascer- 

 taining. They construct their combs in any suitable crevice in 

 trunks of trees or perpendicular banks, and the clay is required 

 to build up a wall so as to close the gap, with the exception of 

 a small orifice for their own entrance and exit. Most kinds of 

 Melipona are in this respect masons, as well as workers in wax 

 and pollen-gatherers. One little species (undescribed) not more 

 than two lines long, builds a neat tvibular gallery of clay, 

 kneaded with some viscid substance, outside the entrance to its 

 hive, besides blocking up the crevice in which it is situated. 

 The mouth of the tube is trumpet-shaped, and at the entrance 

 a number of the pigmy Bees are always stationed, apparently 

 acting as sentinels. 



" It is remarkable that none of the American Bees have at- 

 tained that high degree of architectural skill in the construction 

 of their cells which is shown by the European Hive Bee. The 

 wax cells of the Meliponoe are generally oblong, showing only 

 an approximation to the hexagonal shape in places where several 

 of them are built in contact. It would appear that the Old 

 World has produced in Bees, as well as in other families of 

 animals, far more advanced forms tlia.n the tropics of the New 

 World. A hive of the Melipona fasciculata, which I saw 

 opened, contained about two quarts of pleasantly-tasted liquid 

 honey. The Bees, as already remarked, have no sting, but tliey 

 bite furiously when their colonies are disturbed. The Indian 

 who plundered the hive was completely covered by them ; they 

 took a particular fancy to the hair of his head, and fastened on 

 it by hundreds. 



" I found forty-five species of these Bees in different parts of 



