192 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



remote past adopted the plan of choosing for its dwelling- 

 place some chamber in the rocks, or cavity in a hollow tree 

 which could be shaped to the needs of a habitation. Owing 

 to the size of these cavities, they were enabled to form 

 societies composed of many thousands of individuals ; while 

 the species which adopted nests, in other conditions, were 

 much more limited as regards their numbers. Thus the 

 bumble-bee, which abides underground, dwells in very small 

 communities, probably for the reason that the conditions 

 of the soil it inhabits make it difficult to excavate and 

 maintain large rooms. It is this habit of resorting to 

 hollow spaces, as well as the instinct to store up honey in 

 wax cases, which has made the common bee valuable to 



man. 



At best the opportunities which the wilderness affords, in 

 the way of fit dwelling-places for the swarm which goes forth 

 from a hive, are much less than can readily be provided by 

 art. In almost all cases the wild bees have to expend a 

 great deal of labor in searching for a fit residence ; and after 

 such is found it requires a great deal of toil and expenditure 

 of the costly wax in order to shape the cavity so that it may 

 comfortably accommodate the multitude, and be reasonably 

 safe from the attacks of other insects. Thus it has come 

 about that the bee has, in a way, welcomed the interference 

 of man with his ancestral conditions ; and, though the species 

 exists in the wildernesses of its native land, the domesticated 

 varieties have so far taken up with man that in other 

 countries they do not wander far from the limits of civiliza- 

 tion. Now and then an uncared-for swarm which cannot 

 find accommodations about the parent hive will betake itself 

 to the wilderness ; though it generally continues to seek 



