HIVE-BEES. 125 



in Europe at least for two thousand years ; and Varro 

 describes the sort of hives used in his time, 1870 years 

 ago. We are not aware, however, that it is now to he 

 found wild in the milder clime of Southern Europe, any 

 more than it is in our own island. 



The wild bees of Palestine principally hived in rocks. 

 " He made him," says Moses, " to suck honey out of the 

 rock." * " With honey out of the rock," says the Psalmist, 

 "should I have satisfied tliee."t In the caves of Salsette 

 and Elephanta, at the present day, they hive in the clefts 

 of the rocks and the recesses among the fissures, in such 

 numbers, as to become very troublesome to visitors. Their 

 nests hang in innumerable clusters.^ 



We are told of a little black stingless bee found in the 

 island of Guadaloupe, which hives in hollow trees or in 

 the cavities of rocks by the sea-side, and lays " up honey 

 in cells about the size and shape of pigeons' eggs. These 

 cells are of a black or deep violet colour, and so joined 

 together as to leave no space between them. They hang 

 in clusters almost like a bunch of grapes." § The follow- 

 ing are mentioned by Lindley as indigenous to Brazil. 

 " On an excursion towards Upper Tapagippe," says he, 

 " and skirting the dreary woods which extend to the in- 

 terior, I observed the trees more loaded with bees' nests 

 than even in the neighbourhood of Porto Seguro. They 

 consist of a ponderous shell of clay cemented similarly to 

 martins' nests, swelling from high trees about a foot thick, 

 and forming an oval mass full two feet in diameter. When 

 broken, the wax is arranged as in our hives, and the honey 

 abundant." |1 



Captain Basil Hall found in South America, the hive 

 of a honey-bee very different from the Brazilian, but nearly 

 allied to, if not the same as, that of Guadaloupe. " The 

 hive we saw opened," he says, "was only partly filled, 

 which enabled us to see the economy of the interior to 

 more advantage. The honey is not contained in the 



* Deut. xxxii. 13. t Psalm b^xxi. 16. 



X Forbes, Orien. Mem. i. § Amer. Q. Eev. iii. p. 383. 



11 Eoy. Mil. Clirou. quoted in Kirby aud Spence. 



