296 
FOBEIGN BEES. 
duced to a pulp or paste before being used, and is 
of a conical shape. The insect produces no wax. 
We shall conclude this imperfect notice of Foreign 
Bees with some account of those of Mexico, con- 
cerning which more is known than of any others 
out of Europe. Great attention is paid to them by 
the Mexicans, not so much on account of their 
honey, although remarkably rich and delicate, as for 
the sake of the wax, of which great quantities are 
consumed in the ceremonies of the Roman Catholic 
worship. In the peninsula of Yucatan, there are 
colonies of them domesticated, consisting of five or 
six hundred hives. Many interesting particulars of 
their natural history have been furnished by Her- 
nandez in his account of New Spain ; and subse- 
quently by our countrymen Captains Beechey and 
Hall, particularly by the first named officer, who 
has gone into a minuteness of detail, which would 
have done credit to one who had mode the subject 
of bees his exclusive study. Hernandez describes 
several kinds of the insect in Mexico : — one resem- 
bling the European, and which produces a honey like 
our own. It is domesticated by the Indians, who 
lodge the swarms, he says, in the hollows of trees. 
A second species is noticed by the same Author, as 
smaller than ours — so much smaller as to resemble 
“ winged ants,” — and as without stings. They 
build their nests, which are composed of several 
layers, probably resembling those of wasps, in the 
rocks, and also suspend them on trees, particularly 
the oak. Their honey is dark coloured and high 
