278 POEEIGN BEES. 



thin as water, yet it seemed as sweet, and of as 

 delicate a taste as the hest honey of England." 



" Whilst I was engaged in the chace one day on 

 foot with a Namaqua attendant, he picked up a 

 small stone, looked at it earnestly, then over the 

 plain, and threw it down again. I asked what it 

 was ; he said there was the ma'rk of a bee on it ; 

 taking it up, I also saw on it a small pointed drop 

 of wax,* which had fallen from a bee in its flight. 

 The Namaqua noticed the direction the point of the 

 drop indicated, and, walking on, he picked up an- 

 other stone, also with a drop of wax on it, and so 

 on at considerable intervals, till, getting behind a 

 crag, he looked up, and bees were seen flying across 

 the sky, and in and out of a cleft in the face of the 

 rock. Here of course was the honey he was in pur- 

 suit of. A dry bush is selected, fire is made, the 

 cliffis ascended, and the nest is robbed in the smoke."t 



African travellers give us an amusing account of 

 one of the modes by which the natives in the interior 

 are enabled to discover the spot where the bees have 

 deposited their treasures. They are guided by a 

 small bird (Cuculus Indicus, See Plate XXV.) of a 

 brownish-grey colour, well named the Honey -Guide. 

 This little creature is very fond of honey and bee- 

 brood ; but unable by its own exertions to secure 

 the means of gratifying its taste, it directs the negroes, 

 by a peculiar cry or whistle, to the tree where the 

 bees have taken up their residence, advancing before 



* More probably excrement. 



f Alexander's Expedition into the Interior of Africa. 



