Hive-Bees. 163 



Southern Africa produces, and one which the natives fear 

 but little less than the lion itself. And more than once the 

 too-confiding traveller has followed the honey-guide, and 

 been led to a spot where was lying one of the venomous 

 serpents. 



The Americans, who have not the African honey-guide, 

 employ several well-known methods to track bees to their 

 hives. One of the most common though ingenious modes 

 is to place a piece of bee-bread on a flat surface, a tile for 

 instance, surrounding it with a circle of wet white paint. 

 The bee, whose habit it is always to alight on the edge of 

 any plane, has to travel through the paint to reach the bee- 

 bread. When, therefore, she flies off, the observer can track 

 her by the white on her body. The same operation is 

 repeated at another place, at some distance from the first, 

 and at right angles to the bee-line just ascertained. The 

 position of the hive is easily determined, for it lies in the 

 angle made tiy the intersection of the bee-lines. Another 

 method is described in the ' Philosophical Transactions for 

 172 1/ The bee-hunter decoys, by a bait of honey, some of 

 the bees into his trap, and when he has secured as many as 

 he judges will suit his purpose, he encloses one in a tube, 

 and, letting it fly, marks its course by a pocket-compass. 

 Departing to some distance, he liberates another, observes 

 its course, and in this manner determines the position of the 

 hive, upon the principle already detailed. These methods 

 of bee-hunting depend upon the insect's habit of always 

 flying in a right line to its home. Those who have read 

 Cooper's tale of the ' Prairie ' must well remember the 

 character of the bee-hunter, and the expression of " lining a 

 bee to its hive." 



In reading these and similar accounts of the bees of 

 distant parts of the world, we must not conclude that the 

 descriptions refer to the same species as the common honey- 

 bee. There are numerous species of social bees, which, while 

 they differ in many circumstances, agree in the practice of 

 storing up honey, in the same way as we have numerous 

 species of the mason-bee and of the humble-bee. 



