292 
FOREIGN BEES. 
blanched. The species named Trigonis Amalthea, 
(PI. XXVII. fig. 1.) is also found here. It con- 
structs its nest of a form somewhat resembling a 
Bagpipe, eight or ten inches in diameter, and eighteen 
or twenty inches in length, towards the top of a tree 
of moderate height. (PI. XXVII.) Within are found 
large cells filled with a fine reddish-coloured honey. 
The nest which, on a superficial view, might be 
mistaken for a mass of coarse earth applied when 
moist against the tree, cannot he procured until the 
tree is cut down, when the natives, after using the 
honey, and making a kind of mead, convert the wax 
into matches. 
In Brazil, there are many species of bees described 
by travellers, — doubtless including in the number 
those last noticed as inhabiting Guiana. One or two, 
however, may be mentioned, which differ in some 
degree from those alluded to. The first is a species 
surpassing all the others in size, without a sting, and 
building in the hollows of trees. Another is de- 
scribed as of a yellowish line, and of a small size, 
and having their nests suspended from the branches, 
sometimes half an ell in length. Koster* notices a 
species inhabiting the trunks of trees, of a black 
colour, and smaller than the European ; their sting 
not formidable. The natives of Pernambuco pre- 
serve them in a part of the trunk of the tree in 
which they had been originally found. Their honey 
is very liquid, and is used as medicine rather than as 
food; for the small quantities obtained render the 
* Travels in Brazil, by Henry Koster, in 1810. 
