HYMENOPTEEA. 359 



America, but it soon returns to its wild state, as indeed do all 

 our domestic animals when transported to the other hemisphere. 

 At the Cape of Good Hope, the Hottentots seek greedily after 

 the nests of wild bees, a bird called the Indicator guiding 

 them in this chase. This bird comes of its own accord towards 

 the savages, and is observed flitting about from tree to tree, 

 making a little significant cry. They have only then to follow 

 this bird-informer, for it will not be long in stopping before 

 some hollow tree which contains a nest of bees. The Hottentots 

 always acknowledge its services by leaving it a part of the booty. 



Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, tells us, in his work entitled 

 "The Prairie," how the bee-hunters in America discover the 

 wild hives. They place on a plank, covered with white paint 

 still moist, a piece of bread covered with sugar or honey. The 

 bees, in plundering this bread, get some of the paint on their 

 bodies, and are then more easily tracked when they return to 

 their hives. In North America they are, as it were, the har- 

 bingers of civilisation. When the Indians perceive a swarm 

 trying to establish themselves in the solitudes of their forests, 

 they say to one another, "The white man is approaching; he 

 will soon be here." True pioneers of civilisation, these insects 

 seem to announce to the forests and deserts of the New World 

 that the reign of nature has passed away, and that now the 

 social state has begun to play its part a part that will never 

 end. 



The bees peculiar to South America have no 

 sting: these are the Meliponas. These (Fig. 

 332) are more compactly formed than our bees, 

 have a more hairy body, and are smaller in size. 

 Very numerous in the virgin forests, they make 

 their nests in the hollows of trees. The wax produced by them 

 is brown, and of an indifferent quality. Under thick leaves of 

 wax are found cakes, with hexagonal cells, containing the males, 

 females, and neuters. The cells of the larvae are closed by the 

 workers, and the larvae spin themselves a cocoon inside. All 

 around the cradles are large round cells, entirely different in form 

 from the cradles, in which the honey is stored. It is probable 

 that the males, the workers, and the females, live together in 



