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 they 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.” (lx The Austrahan Bush.) 
Readers will doubtless be able to recall appreciative biblical 
allusions to the desirable properties of honey. 
In the case of the Honey-Bee (4gzs 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”, 2.¢. imperfectly- 
