WILD BEES OF AMERICAN FORESTS 267 



and scooped out the comb with great coolness, eating it 

 as he did so, and finally coming down with a great piece 

 in his jaws, which he carried away with him, an angry 

 crowd of bees following and buzzing about his ears. 

 Every now and then he stopped to free himself from 

 these enemies, but they evidently could give him no 

 serious annoyance. The scene was a most amusing one, 

 for the bear, unconscious of my presence among the 

 bushes, moved most leisurely, stopping to lick the honey 

 from his paws and the ground, as if loth, to lose a single 

 drop of the luscious fluid. I, being unarmed, felt any- 

 thing but happy with the huge brute within thirty yards 

 of me, grunting his satisfaction to himself ; for though I 

 have now grown to have little or no apprehension of an 

 unprovoked bear, I had not so much confidence then, and 

 seized the first opportunity to try and get away. Bruin 

 saw me, and stared in astonishment. Recovering him- 

 self, he went off with the air and gait of a thieving dog, 

 not forgetting to take his honey-comb with him. I did 

 not laugh at the time, but I have laughed heartily at the 

 remembrance of the scene. 



At the time I made no very minute examination of 

 the American wild bee ; but I certainly never noticed 

 any difference between it and the common hive-bee, 

 Apis meliftca, of England ; there is often a peculiar 

 and not very pleasant flavour with the honey. This 

 applies also to honey obtained at American farms, 

 and depends, no doubt, on the source from which the 

 nectar is gathered. On some farms, with the view of 

 remedying this defect, large numbers of stocks are grown, 

 this being a favourite flower with the bees. 



When the bees have taken possession of a cavity in a 

 tree- trunk, they give off no swarms until they have com- 

 pletely filled it and there is no room for fresh inhabitants. 

 The swarms are therefore often of enormous numbers, in 

 some cases amounting to hundreds of thousands. The 

 age of a nest may approximately be told by the number 



