MIGRATIONS OF INSECTS. 263 



and by floatino^ o-ently down the river, the bees 

 had an opportunity of gathering honey from the 

 flowers alonir the banks. In Lower Egypt, where 

 the blowing- of flowers is considerably later than 

 in the upper districts, the practice of transporting 

 bee- hives is much followed. The hives are col- 

 lected from different villages along the banks, each 

 being marked and numbered by individual propri- 

 etors, to prevent future mistakes. They are then 

 arranged in pyramidal piles upon the boats pre- 

 pared to receive them, which floating gradually 

 down the river, and stopp?ng at certain stages of 

 their passage, remain there a longer or a shorter 

 time, according to the produce afforded by the 

 surrounding country. In this manner the bee-boats 

 sail for three months : the bees having culled the 

 honey of the orange flowers in the Said, and of the 

 Arabian jassmitie and other flowers in the more 

 northern parts, are brought back to the places 

 from which they had been carried. This procures 

 for the Egyptians delicious honey and abundance of 

 bees' wax. The proprietors in return pay the boatmen 

 a recom pence proportioned to the number of hives 

 which have been thus carried about from one ex- 

 tremity of Egypt to the other. The celebrated 

 traveller Niebuhr saw upon the Nile, between Cairo 

 and Damietta, a convoy of 4000 hives in their transit 

 from Upper Egypt to the coast of the Delta. 



These artificial transportations of a domesticated 

 race of insects exhibit a partial example of what fre- 

 quently takes place in a natural manner, when it is 

 necessary to shift from one place to another for the 

 sake of a better supply of food. In many cases, 

 however, where food is abundant, and other circum- 

 stances favourable, particular insects limit their 

 excursions to a very narrow range. Thus we have 

 observed the forester moth {Iiio daticcs^ Leach) 



