468 
THE ANTILLES. 
cavity. The mother Bee is lighter in colour than the 
other Bees, and elongated at the abdomen to double 
their length.” 
Both of the stingless genera referred to, Melipona 
and Trigona, are found in the 'warm regions of the 
New World as well as in those of the Old. A 
species of the former, M. fulvipes^ is found in Cuba ; 
and the above may he identical with it. The species 
of Trigona build their nests at the extremities of 
branches of trees, in the shape of a large pear ; the 
Meliponce select hollow trees. The nest of a Mexican 
Melipona, exhibited at the Linnsean Society, Jan. 29., 
1829, built in a hollow log, consisted of a number of 
irregularly-placed, black, oval cells, filled with thick 
honey of an amber colour, among which several of 
the Bees were lying dead. 
THE UTIA, OR INDIAN CONY. 
When Columbus discovered the greater Antilles in 
1492, he found in them no quadruped of sufficient 
importance to attract notice save the Alco already 
noticed (‘^a species of dog which never barked”) and 
a kind of cony or rabbit, called Utia.” The latter 
was the only four-footed animal that afibrded meat to 
the simple natives, who were accustomed, according 
to the early Spanish historians, to hunt it during its 
nocturnal activity by the light of the fire-fly. 
What this animal really was has been a matter of 
uncertainty until recently. It has been commonly 
confounded, by topographers and historians, with the 
Agouti, a species of the Cavy tribe, known to inhabit 
