§vi.] OTHER FOREIGN VARIETIES. 51 



not provided with a veil.* This is the kind of bee found 

 in Palestine, and therefore the one which Samson found 

 in the carcase of the lion. 



In connection with this species, the Rev. H. B. Tris- 

 tram, in his valuable book, "The Land of Israel," has 

 an interesting account of the bees in that country. In 

 Palestine bee-keeping is an important item of industry, 

 and every house has a pile of beehives in its yard. 

 Their bee, he says, "is amazingly abundant, both in 

 hives, in rocks, and in old hollow trees. It is smaller 

 than our ordinary bees, with brighter yellow bands on 

 the thorax and abdomen, which is rather wasp like in 

 shape, and with very long antennae. In its habits, and 

 especially in the immense population of neuters in each 

 community, and in the drones cast forth in autumn, it 

 resembles the other species. Its sting also is quite as 

 sharp. The hives are very simple, consisting of large 

 tubes of sun-dried mud, like gas-pipes, about four feet 

 long, and closed with mud at each end, leaving only an 

 aperture in the centre large enough for two or three bees 

 to pass at a time. The insects appear to frequent both 

 doors equally. The tubes are laid in rows horizontally, 

 and piled in a pyramid. I counted one of these colonies, 

 consisting of seventy-eight tubes, each a distinct hive. 

 Coolness being the great object, the whole is thickly 



* Vogel says, that this bee never stings unless incensed, "but then 

 quite maliciously ; " also that it is only more irritated by tobacco 

 smoke, but is effectually subdued by that from willow touchwood. 



