468 THE ANTILLES. 



cavity. The mother Bee is lighter in colour than the 

 other Bees, and elongated at the abdomen to double 

 their length." 



Both of the stingless genera referred to, Melipona 

 and Trigona, are found in the warm regions of the 

 New World as well as in those of the Oldo A 

 species of the former, M. fulvipes, is found in Cuba ; 

 and the above may be identical with it. The species 

 of Trigona build their nests at the extremities of 

 branches of trees, in the shape of a large pear ; the 

 Meliponce select hollow trees. The nest of a Mexican 

 Melipona, exhibited at the Linnaean Society, Jan. 29., 

 1829, built in a hollow log, consisted of a number of 

 irregularly-placed, black, oval cells, filled with thick 

 honey of an amber colour, among which several of 

 the Bees were lying dead. 



THE UTIA, OR INDIAN CONY. 



When Columbus discovered the greater Antilles in 

 1492, he found in them no quadruped of sufficient 

 importance to attract notice save the Alco already 

 noticed ("a species of dog which never barked") and 

 " a kind of cony or rabbit, called Utia." The latter 

 was the only four-footed animal that afforded meat to 

 the simple natives, who were accustomed, according 

 to the early Spanish historians, to hunt it during its 

 nocturnal activity by the light of thejire-fly. 



What this animal really was has been a matter of 

 uncertainty until recently. It has been commonly 

 confounded, by topographers and historians, with the 

 Agouti, a species of the Cavy tribe, known to inhabit 



