242 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



far as to adulterate the honey in a most ingenious manner. They feed 

 the bees with glucose, thus saving them long journeys to the flowers, but 

 glucose does not make good honey. Some of the honey is sent to the 

 market in the comb, while the rest is ' extracted,' the comb being used 

 ;i"\iin in the hive, or is melted up and sold as wax. The uses of beeswax 

 are many ; indeed, it would take pages to enumerate them all. Possibly 

 the largest amount is used to make the candles consumed in Catholic 

 countries. 



Among bees, as among cattle and other domesticated animals, there are 

 various breeds, each of which has its peculiar features and its advocates. 

 Some want Egyptian, while others are satisfied with Italian or Syrian 

 <|\ieens, and so on through the list. The plants on which the bees feed 

 influence the quality of honey. That produced by feeding on white clover 

 is considered the best, that from buckwheat standing next. California is. 

 the great honey-producing state, the shipments in 1878 having aggregated 

 1.773,700 pounds; and in 1880, 1,011,856 pounds. 



Besides our common honey-bee there are many others which gather 

 honey, especially in the tropics. Some of this honey is good, while some 

 is bitter or otherwise disagreeable to the taste. Mr. Wallace has given an 

 account of one of these wild bees' nests occurring in the island of Timor. 

 " In the valley where I used to collect insects I one day saw three or four 

 Timorese men and boys under a high tree, and, on looking up, saw on a 

 very lofty, horizontal branch three large bees' combs. The tree was 

 straight and smooth-barked and without a branch, till at seventy or eighty 

 feet from the ground it gave out the limb which the bees had chosen for 

 their home. As the men were evidently looking after the bees, I wanted 

 to watch their operations. One of them first produced a long piece of 

 wood, apparently the stem of a small tree or creeper, which he had brought 

 with him, and began splitting it through in several directions, which showed 

 that it was very tough and stringy. He then wrapped it in palm-leaves,, 

 which were secured by twisting a slender creeper round them. He then 

 fastened his cloth tightly round his loins, and, producing another cloth, 

 wrapped it round his head, neck, and body, and tied it firmly round his. 

 neck, leaving his face, arms, and legs completely bare. Slung to his girdle 

 he carried a long, thin coil of cord ; and while he had been making these 

 preparations one of his companions had cut a strong creeper, or bush-rope, 

 eight or ten yards long, to one end of which the wood-torch was fastened, 

 and lighted at the bottom, emitting a steady stream of smoke. Just above 

 the torch a chopping-knife was fastened by a short cord. 



" The bee-hunter now took hold of the bush-rope just above the torch, 

 and passed the other end round the trunk of the tree, holding one end in 



