136 BEE-FARMING. 



appears from the report of some late travellers, never build 

 their nests in the trunks of trees ; and, though they are 

 sometimes found nestling under the surface of the ground, 

 make their dwellings chiefly in the clefts of the rocks ; and 

 one large rock in the Cape Colony has so long served as a 

 favourite residence to these insects as to obtain from the 

 Dutch settlers the name of Honig Kiss, i.e., honey-rock. 

 The foUowring anecdotes relating to this species are from 

 Burchel's Travels in Africa (vol. i. 377): "My bedding 

 having been left out in the open air all day, we found in 

 the evening the mattress taken possession of by a swarm 

 of bees which had taken shelter under it for the night, and 

 as a favour to these industrious creatures we left them 

 undisturbed. They remained there till the next day at 

 noon, when they departed in quest of some convenient 

 chink in the rocks for their hive. Their manner of 

 swarming appeared to us to diifer in nothing from that of 

 the common English bee. The same species, or others of 

 the genus Apis, abounds in every part of this continent 

 which has come under my observation, and is everywhere 

 eagerly robbed of its honey. None of these nations have 

 the least idea of bringing them under domestic management, 

 but are content to take the honey wherever it is found ; and 

 this being done, often at an improper season, they make a 

 useless destruction of the larvae or young bees still in the 

 cells." " One of the Hottentots observed a number of 

 bees entering a hole in the ground which had formerly 

 belonged to some animal of the weasel kind. As he made 

 signs for us to come to him, we turned that way fearing 

 he had met with some accident ; and, when the people began 

 to unearth the bees, I did not expect that we should escape 

 without being severely stung. But they knew so well 

 how to manage an affair of this kind, that they robbed the 

 poor insects with the greatest ease and safety. Before 

 they commenced digging a fire was made near the hole, 



