USEFUL INSECTS 195 



sustenance from the abundant flowers of the tilled fields 

 where it finds species, such as clover and buckwheat, from 

 which it has been long accustomed to win the harvest of 

 pollen and honey. 



In North America the honey-bees, which were brought \ 

 by the early settlers, and which had been kept on the frontier 

 by the pioneers of our civilization, have always extended, in 

 wild swarms, a little distance into the wilderness. But, at 

 most, they appear to have wandered only for a few miles 

 beyond the homestead, going no further away than would 

 permit their use of the cultivated plants. The aborigines 

 early learned to regard the insect as the avant courier 

 of European men. When they came upon an individual of 

 the species they always knew that some white man's dwelling 

 stood nearby. Those who are familiar with the solitudes of 

 our Appalachian forests must often have remarked, in the 

 stillness of a summer day, the hum of a swarm from some 

 forest or domestic hive in its search for a dwelling-place. 

 Those who have followed up the movements of these migrat- 

 ing colonies have had a chance to perceive how long is the 

 search before they find a fit abiding place. Doubtless by far 

 the greater part of these searchers for a home fail of their 

 quest, and the wandering swarms perish without finding a 

 suitable shelter. 



In certain kinds of woods, as, for instance, those occupied 

 by pine trees or other species which do not develop spacious 

 hollows in their trunks, and where there are no crannied 

 rocks all the swarms which seek habitations there are fore- 

 doomed to destruction. If by chance the colonies wander 

 too far, they generally find the wilderness so ill provided with 

 plants which may furnish them with the sources of wax, 



