146 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



bread on a flat surface, a tile for instance, surround- 

 ing it with a circle of wet white paint. The bee, 

 whose habit it is ahvays to ahght on the edge of any 

 plane, has to travel through the paint to reach the 

 bee-bread. When, therefore, she flies off", the ob- 

 server can track her by the white on her body. The 

 same operation is repeated at another place, at some 

 distance from the first, and at right angles to the bee- 

 line just ascertained. The position of the liive is 

 easily determined, for it hes in the angle made by the 

 intersection of the bee-lines. Another method is 

 described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1721. 

 The bee-hunter decoys, by a bait of honey, some of 

 the bees into his trap, and when he has secured as 

 many as he judges will suit his purpose, he encloses 

 one in a tube, and, letting it fly, marks its course by 

 a pocket compass. Departing to some distance, he 

 liberates another, observes its course, and in this 

 manner determines the position of the hive, upon the 

 principle already detailed. These methods of bee- 

 hunting depend upon the insect's habit of always 

 flying in a right line to its home. Those who have 

 read Cooper's tale of the ' Prairie' must well remem- 

 ber the expression of " lining a bee to its hive." 



In reading these and smiilar accounts of the 

 bees of distant parts of the world, we must not 

 conclude that the descriptions refer to the same 

 species as the common honey-bee. There are num- 

 merous species of social bees which, while they differ 

 in many circumstances, agree in the practice of 

 storing up honey, in the same way as we have nu- 

 merous species of the mason bee and of the humble 

 bee. Of the latter Mr Stephens enumerates no less 

 than forty-two species indigenous to Britain, 



