HIVE-BEES. 127 



seldom refuses to follow it onward till it stops, as it is 

 certain to do, at some hollow tree containing a bee-hive, 

 usually well stored with honey and wax. It may be that 

 the bird finds itself inadequate to the attack of a legion 

 of bees, or to penetrate into the interior of the hive, 

 and is thence led to invite an agent more powerful than 

 itself. The person invited, indeed, always leaves the bird 

 a share of the spoil, as it would be considered sacrilege 

 to rob it of its due, or in any way to injure so useful a 

 creature. 



The Americans, who have not the African honey-guide, 

 employ several well-known methods to track bees to their 

 hives. One of the most common though ingenious modes 

 is to place a piece of bee-bread on a flat surface, a tile for 

 instance, surrounding it with a circle of wet white paint. 

 The bee, whose habit it is always to alight on the edge of 

 any plane, has to travel through the paint to reach the bee- 

 bread. AVhen, therefore, she flies off, the observer 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 hive is easily determined, for it lies 

 in the angle made by the intersection of the bee-lines. 

 Another method is described in the ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions 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 

 incloses 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 Cooj^er's tale of the ' Prairie ' 

 must well remember the character of the bee-hunter, and 

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



In reading these and similar 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- 



