The Progress of the Race 



combs of foundation-wax been offered to 

 the Meliponitae ? Would they accept them, 

 would they make use of them, would they 

 conform their habits to this unwonted 

 architecture ? Questions, these, that we 

 put to very tiny creatures ; and yet they 

 contain the great word of our greatest 

 secrets. We cannot answer them, for 

 our experience dates but from yesterday. 

 Starting with Reaumur, about a hundred 

 and fifty years have elapsed since the 

 habits of wild bees first received atten- 

 tion. Reaumur was acquainted with only 

 a few of them ; we have since then ob- 

 served a few more ; but hundreds, thou- 

 sands perhaps, have hitherto been noticed 

 only by hasty and ignorant travellers. 

 The habits of those that are known to 

 us have undergone no change since the 

 author of the " Memoirs " published his 

 valuable work ; and the humble-bees, all 

 powdered with gold, and vibrant as the 



405 



