BEE. 
433 
sometimes afford. It entirely depends on the size 
of the hollow, as the bees never rest nor swarm till 
it is replenished ; for it is only the want of room 
that induces them to quit the maternal hive. Next 
I proceed to some of the nearest settlements, where 
I procure proper assistance to cut down the trees, 
get all my prey secured, and then return home with 
my prize. The first bees I ever procured were 
thus found in the woods by mere accident ; for at 
that time I had no kind of skill in this method of 
tracing them. The body of the tree being perfectly 
sound, they had lodged themselves in the hollow 
of one of its principal limbs, which I carefully sawed 
off, and, with a good deal of labour and industry, 
brought it home, where I fixed it up in the same 
position in which I found it growing. This was 
in April. I had five swarms that year, and they 
have been ever since very prosperous. This busi- 
ness generally takes up a week of my time every 
fall, and to me it is a week of solitary ease and re- 
laxation.” 
Besides the domestic bee, whose history we have 
now concluded, there are several wild species, 
though none of them are so industrious or frugal as 
the common sort. Their work is in every particular 
inferior to these ; and although many of their nests 
are ingenious enough, yet they cannot for a mo- 
ment be compared with the bee-hive. Their habi- 
tations are either composed of dried leaves mixed 
with wax, or they are formed in the middle of a 
plank, or other piece of wood, which they perforate 
VOL. II. 2 F 
