116 INSECT AKCHlTKCTURt. 



bread on a flat surface, a tile for instance, surround 

 ing it with a circle of wet white paint. The bee, 

 whose habit it is always to alight on the edge of any 

 plane, has to travel through the paint to reach the 

 bee-bread. When, therefore, she flies off, the ob- 

 server can track her by the white on her body. The . 

 same operation is repeated at another place, at some 

 distance from the first, and at right angles to the bee- 

 line, just ascertained. The position of the hive is 

 easily determined, for it lies in the angle made by the 

 intersection of the bee-lines. Another method is 

 described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1721. 

 The bee-hunter decoys, by a bait of honey, some of 

 the bees into his trap, and when he has secured as 

 many as he judges will suit his purpose, he incloses 

 one in a tube, and letting it fly, marks its course by 

 a pocket compass. Departing to some distance, he 

 liberates another, observes its course, and in this 

 manner determines the position of the hive, upon the 

 principle already detailed. These methods of bee- 

 hunting depend upon the insect's habit of always 

 flying in a right line to its home. Those who have 

 read Cooper's tale of the 'Prairie' must well remem- 

 ber the expression of" lining a bee to its hive." 



In reading these and similar accounts of the 

 bees of distant parts of the world, we must not 

 conclude that the descriptions refer to the same 

 species as the common honey-bee. There are nu- 

 merous species of social-bees which, while they differ 

 in many circumstances, agree in the practice of 

 storing up honey, in the same way as we have nu- 

 merous species of the mason-bee and of the humble- 

 bee. Of the latter Mr. Stephens enumerates no less 

 than forty-two species indigenous to Britain. 



