258 



ZOOLOGY. 



[PART II. 



forests, to be bartered for arrow points and clothes in the 

 lowlands. 1 I have never heard of an instance of persons 

 being attacked by the bees of Ceylon, and hence the 

 natives assert, that those most productive of honey are 

 destitute of stings. 



The Carpenter Bee. The operations of one of the 

 most interesting of the tribe, the Carpenter bee'' 5 , I have 

 watched with admiration from the window of the Colo- 

 nial Secretary's official residence at Kandy. So soon as 

 the day grew warm, these active creatures were at work 

 perforating the wooden columns which supported the 

 verandah. They poised themselves on their shining 

 purple wings, as they made the first lodgment in the 

 wood, enlivening the work with an uninterrupted hum of 

 delight, which was audible to a considerable distance. 

 When the excavation had proceeded so far that the 

 insect could descend into it, the music was suspended, 

 but renewed from time to time, as the little creature came 

 to the orifice to throw out the chips, to rest, or to enjoy 

 the fresh air. By degrees, a mound of saw-dust was 

 formed at the base of the pillar, consisting of particles 

 abraded by the mandibles of the bee. These, when 

 the hollow was completed to the depth of several inches, 

 were partially replaced in the excavation after being 

 agglutinated to form partitions between the eggs, as 

 they are deposited within. 



Ants. As to ants, I apprehend that, notwithstand- 

 ing their numbers and familiarity, information is very 

 imperfect relative to the varieties and habits of these 

 marvellous insects in Ceylon. 3 In point of multitude 



1 A gentleman connected with the 

 department of the Surveyor-General 

 writes to me that he measured a 

 honey-comb which he found fastened 

 to the overhanging branch of a small 

 tree in the forest near Adam's Peak, 

 and found it nine links of his chain 

 or about six feet in length and a foot 

 in breadth where it was attached to 

 the branch, but tapering towards the 



other extremity. "It was a single 

 comb with a layer of cells on either 

 side, but so weighty that the branch 

 broke by the strain." 



2 Xylocapa tenuiscapa, Westw. ; X. 

 latipes, Drury. 



3 Mr. Jerdan, in a series of papers 

 in the thirteenth volume of the Annals 

 of Natural History, has described 

 forty-seven species of ants in South- 



