162 Insect Architecture. 



or larger. These are suspended from trees, particularly from 

 the oak, and are much more populous than our common 

 hives. 



Wild honey-bees of some species appear also to abound in 

 Africa. Mr. Park, in his second volume of travels, tells us 

 that some of his associates imprudently attempted to rob a 

 numerous hive of its honey, when the exasperated bees, 

 rushing out to defend their property, attacked their assail- 

 ants with great fury, and quickly compelled the whole com- 

 pany to fly. 



At the Cape of Good Hope the bees themselves must be 

 less formidable, or more easily managed, as their hives are 

 sought for with avidity. Nature has there provided man 

 with a singular and very efficient assistant in a bird, most ap- 

 propriately named the honey-guide (Indicator major, VEILLOT ; 

 Cuculus indicator, LATHAM). The honey-guide, it is said, so 

 far from being alarmed at the presence of man, appears 

 anxious to court his acquaintance, and flits from tree to 

 tree -with an expressive note of invitation, the meaning of 

 which is both well known to the colonists and the Hottentots. 

 A person thus invited by the honey-guide seldom refuses to 

 follow it onward till it stops, as it is certain to do, at some 

 hollow tree containing a bee-hive, usually well stored with 

 honey and wax. It may be that the bird finds itself in- 

 adequate to the attack of a legion of bees, or to penetrate 

 into the interior of the hive, and is thence led to invite an 

 agent more powerful than itself. The person invited, indeed, 

 always leaves the bird a share of the spoil, as it would be 

 considered sacrilege to rob it of its due, or in any way to 

 injure so sacred a bird. 



Useful, however, as is the honey-guide, it must always be 

 carefully watched, and the traveller must not follow it with- 

 out keeping his eyes well open. For although, as a general 

 fact, the bird will lead its followers to honey, it has a strange 

 habit of leading them to the spot where lies hidden some 

 dangerous animal. Sometimes it brings them to a rhinoceros, 

 wallowing in a mud pool. Sometimes it directs them to a 

 solitary buffalo, one of the most dangerous animals that 



