144 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



excursion towards Upper Tapagippe," says he, " and 

 skirting the dreary woods which extend to the interior, 

 I observed the trees more loaded with bees' nests 

 than even in the neighbourhood of Porto Seguro. 

 They consist of a ponderous shell of clay cemented 

 similarly to martin's nests, swelling from high trees 

 about a loot thick, and forming an oval mass full 

 two feet m diameter. When broken, the wax is 

 arranged as in our hives, and the honey abundant."* 



Captain Basil Hall found in South America the 

 hive of a honey-bee very diflerent from the Brazilian, 

 but nearly allied to, if not the same, as that of 

 Guadaloupe. " The hive we saw opened," he says, 

 " was only partly filled, which enabled us to see the 

 economy of the interior to more advantage. The 

 honey is not contained in the elegant hexagonal cells 

 of our liives, but in wax-bags, not quite so large as 

 an egg. These bags or bladders are hung round the 

 sides of the hive, and appear about half full; the 

 quantity being probably just as great as the strength 

 of the wax wUl bear without tearmg. Those near 

 the bottom, being better supported, are more filled 

 than the upper ones. In the centre of the lower part 

 of the hive we obsei-ved an irregularly-shaped mass of 

 comb, furnished with cells like those of our bees, all 

 containing young ones in such an advanced state, 

 that, when we broke the comb, and let them out, they 

 flew merrily away." 



Clavigero, in his History of JNIexico, evidently de- 

 scribing the same species of bee, says it abounds in 

 Yucatan, and malves the honey of Estabcntum, the 

 finest m the world, and which is talien every two 

 months. He mentioned another species of bee, 

 smaller in size, and also without a sting, which forms 

 its nest of the shape of a sugailoaf, and as large or 

 larger. These are suspended from trees, particularly 



* Roy. Mill, riiron. quoted in Kirby and Spcnce. 



