292 FOREIGN BEES. 



blanched. The species named Trigonis Amalthei, 

 (PL XXVII. fig. 1.) is also found here. It con- 

 structs its nest of a form somewhat resembling a 

 Bagpipe,, eight or ten inches in diameter, and eighteen 

 or twenty inches in length, towards the top of a tree 

 of moderate height. (PI. XXVII.) Within are found 

 large cells filled with a fine reddish-coloured honey. 

 The nest which, on a superficial view, might be 

 mistaken for a mass of coarse earth applied when 

 moist against the tree, cannot be procured until the 

 tree is cut down, when the natives, after using the 

 honey, and making a kind of mead, convert the wax 

 into matches. 



In Brazil, there are many species of bees described 

 by travellers, doubtless including in the number 

 those last noticed as inhabiting Guiana. One or two, 

 however, may be mentioned, which differ in some 

 degree from those alluded to. The first is a species 

 surpassing all the others in size, without a sting, and 

 building in the hollows of trees. Another is de- 

 scribed as of a yellowish hue, and of a small size, 

 and having their nests suspended from the branches, 

 sometimes half an ell in length. Koster* notices a 

 species inhabiting the trunks of trees, of a black 

 colour, and smaller than the European ; their sting 

 not formidable. The natives of Pernambuco pre- 

 serve them in a part of the trunk of the tree in 

 which they had been originally found. Their honey 

 is very liquid, and is used as medicine rather than as 

 food; for the small quantities obtained render the 

 * Travels in Brazil, by Henry Koster, in 1810. 



