BEES, WASPS, ETC. 



77 



with all these conveniences ? They availed themselves, 

 perhaps, of natural holes in trees and rocks. But all the 

 natural holes there are would not suffice for one in fifty of 

 them. I suspect the over-population difficulty presses these 

 tribes very hard, and whenever they find a house, with all its 

 resources of doors and windows, boxes, padlocks, &c., they 

 immigrate in shoals, like the heathen Chinee into California. 

 One finds it can suit itself to a nicety in ordinary cupboard 

 keyholes, another prefers quill pens or rolled-up maps, a 

 third, with more constructive talent, builds itself a wigwam 

 on the back of the door or under the table, while a fourth 

 simply forms a burrow in the chunam floor of the bath-room 

 into which it pokes itself at times, singing in a high key. 



Taking them all round, I feel convinced that, if accurate 

 census returns could be obtained, it would appear that the 

 hymenopterous population of India had centupled since the 

 British occupation. It requires no very penetrating mind 

 to detect the grave issues which may depend on this, at first 

 sight, trivial result of our rule. Let us consider, as an in- 

 stance, that same fussy, metallic-blue fly which has been 

 tampering with my hat-box. When she finds an eligible 

 hole, roomy enough and yet not too wide at the mouth, she 

 at once cleans it out and puts it in order, and then proceeds, 



