200 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



variation of colour, but all agreeing in their 

 habits ; some are almost as large as the 

 European bee, and some very much smaller 

 than the smallest house-fly ; but they are all, 

 without any exception, stingless. They all 

 form their hives in hollow trees, and bee- 

 hunting consists in following a bee from 

 its feeding-ground to its domicile. A man 

 ought to have a good eye to " line a hee^'' as 

 the North Americans calls it, and he ought 

 to know something of the habits of the insect. 

 A bee on a prairie or savannah may be flying 

 irregularly from spot to spot, and is never 

 followed beyond the first flight ; but when a 

 bee rises well in the air to the height of 

 fifteen or twenty feet, and then flies in a 

 straight line, the bee-hunter knows it is well 

 laden and is making its way home. As long 

 as the ground remains open and clear of trees, 

 it is not difficult for a sharp active fellow to 

 follow the bee, at least to the nearest cover, 

 unless the sun is in his face ; but it is very 

 difficult and almost impossible to follow it 

 when it gets into the forest, as it flies over 

 the underwood, and there is hard enough 

 work getting through the underwood, without 

 watching an insect overhead. 



The tree nearest to the spot where the bee 



