MEXICAN BEES. 
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HABITS OF A MEXICAN BEE, 
PARTLY FROM THE NOTES OF CAPTAIN BEECHEY : WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE INSECT AND 
OF ITS HIVE, BY E. T. BENNETT, ESQ., F.L.S., &C. 
In the hives of the domesticated bees of Mexico vve meet with a structure 
altogether peculiar. They exhibit little of the regularity of construction which 
characterizes the hives of the bees of the old continent, and are far inferior in this 
respect to the habitations of wasps. In one particular they approximate to the 
nests of the European humble bees ; the honey which they contain is deposited 
in laree bass distinct from the common cells. It is somewhat singular that so 
interesting a point of natural history has never been particularly noticed; our 
previous knowledge scarcely extending beyond the facts, that some of the bees of 
America form nests, like those of wasps, attached to, or suspended from trees, 
and covered by an outer case constructed by themselves ; while others, incapable 
apparently of forming this outer crust for their hives, seek cavities ready formed 
for their reception, and in them construct their habitations. Instances of each of 
these kinds of hives are mentioned by Piso in his Natural History of both the 
Indies (page IIS) ; and Hernandez, in his history of Mexico (Lib. ix, p. 133), 
states, that the Indians keep bees analogous to ours, which deposit their honey in 
the hollows of trees. Little information beyond that furnished by these older 
writers is contained in more modern works ; and even the Baron Von Humboldt, 
to whose acute observation science is indebted for so many discoveries respecting 
the New World, appears not to have noticed, with his usual care, the peculiarities 
of its bees. Had that distinguished traveller directed his attention to the habits 
of the species which he collected during his memorable journey, M. Latreille 
would doubtless have given to us the necessary details in his excellent Monograph 
of the American Bees, included in the Observations Zoologiques of M. Humboldt. 
In the valuable essay prefixed to this Monograph, M. Latreille has collected from 
authors numerous statements relating to the habitations of bees, and especially of 
those of America ; but has added to them no new facts as regards the hives of 
the New World. The subject may, therefore, be regarded as altogether novel, 
and as requiring some little detail in its explanation. 
In the domestication of the bees of Mexico but little violence is done to their 
natural habits. Inhabitants, in their wild state, of cavities in trees, a hollow tree 
is selected to form their hive. A portion of it, of between two and three feet in 
