EXOTIC BEES. 



earthenware, instead of the clumsy apparatus of 

 wood ; these are relieved by raised figures and 

 circular rings, so as to form rather handsome or- 

 naments in the verandah of a house, where they 

 are suspended by cords from the roof, in the 

 same manner that the wooden ones in the village 

 are hung to the eaves of the cottage. On one side 

 of the hive, half-way between the ends, there is 

 a small hole made, just large enough for a loaded 

 bee to enter, and shaded by a projection to pre- 

 vent the rain from trickling in. In this hole, 

 generally representing the mouth of a man, or 

 some monster, the head of which is moulded in 

 the clay of the hive, a bee is constantly stationed, 

 whose office is no sinecure*, for the hole is so 

 small, he has to draw back every time a bee 

 wishes to enter or to leave the hive. A gentleman 

 told me that the experiment had been made, by 

 marking the sentinel ; when it was observed that 

 the same bee continued at his post a whole day. 



" When it is ascertained by the weight that the 

 hive is full, the end pieces are removed, and the 



* If the Mexican bees enter the hives with as much ra- 

 pidity and in as great numbers as Reaumur states they do 

 in this part of the world, it would indeed be no sinecure. 

 He observes that the population of a hive amounts to 18,000, 

 and that a hundred enter in a minute ; if as many go out 

 in the same time, I think the sentinel must rather stand on 

 one side of the entrance than within it. 



