252 UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



colonies are disturbed." Semon complains of the time wasted 

 in the search for honey by the blacks he employed to hunt out 

 the Spiny Ant-Eater (Echidna]: "About a dozen black families 

 had gathered in my camp at that period, but only two or three 

 of them performed any work worth mentioning. The control of 

 their day's labour was very difficult, as we were not able to 

 follow them on their rambles, and to make sure of their really 

 pursuing the track of Echidna and not giving themselves up 

 to sweet idleness or to the search of nests of the stingless 

 Australian bee, of the honey of which the are excessively fond. 

 . . . Many an hour destined for labour did they spend in the 

 pursuit of these bees' nests. Still greater was the loss of time 

 when they discovered a nest of our European honey-bee. Mr. 

 Cole, the doctor in Gayndah, was an eager apiarian, and from 

 his hives European bees, which soon became wild, had spread 

 all over the Middle Burnet. . . . Whenever it happened that my 

 blacks discovered a tree which the immigrated bees had chosen 

 as a dwelling, and the hollow of which they had filled with their 

 sweet stores (often to a height of eleven yards or so above the 

 ground), all the mob would at once assemble to fell the mighty 

 tree, often the work of a day." (In The Australian Bush.} 

 Readers will doubtless be able to recall appreciative biblical 

 allusions to the desirable properties of honey. 



In the case of the Honey- Bee (Apis mellifica), with which 

 we are here more especially concerned, the primitive apprecia- 

 tion of sweets led in very early times to the practice of api- 

 culture. As in so many other things the ancient Egyptians 

 would seem to have led the way, their example being zealously 

 followed by both Greeks and Romans. The littoral of the 

 Eastern Mediterranean was possibly the original home of the 

 species, and, if we include varieties, it now has a wide range 

 in the Old World, and has also been introduced into America, 

 the West Indies, Australia, and New Zealand. 



As elsewhere sufficiently indicated, the Honey- Bee represents 

 the final term of specialized social life among its kind, though 

 very possibly some features have been brought about by the 

 influence of long-continued domestication. The leading facts 

 about it are so well known that a brief outline may here suffice. 

 A populous hive will contain a queen, several hundred drones 

 or males, and from 30,000 to 50,000 " workers ", i.e. imperfectly- 



