excursion towards Upper Tapagippe," says he, “and skirting the dreary woods which extend to the interior, I observed the trees more loaded with bees' nests than even in the neighbourhood of Porto Seguro. They consist of a ponderous shell of clay cemented similarly to martins' nests, swelling from high trees about a foot thick, and forming an oval mass full two feet in diameter. When broken, the wax is arranged as in our hives, and the honey abundant *."

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Captain Basil Hall found in South America the hive of a honey-bee very different from the Brazilian, but nearly allied to, if not the same, as that of Guadaloupe. "The hive we saw opened," he says, was only partly filled, which enabled us to see the economy of the interior to more advantage. The honey is not contained in the elegant hexagonal cells of our hives, but in wax-bags, not quite so large as an egg. These bags or bladders are hung round the sides of the hive, and appear about half full; the quantity being probably just as great as the strength of the wax will bear without tearing. Those near the bottom, being better supported, are more filled than the upper ones. In the centre of the lower part of the hive we observed an irregularly-shaped mass of comb, furnished with cells like those of our bees, all containing young ones in such an advanced state, that, when we broke the comb, and let them out, they flew merrily away."

Clavigero, in his History of Mexico, evidently de scribing the same species of bee, says it abounds in Yucatan, and makes the honey of Estabentum, the finest in the world, and which is taken every two months. He mentioned another species of bee, smaller in size, and also without a sting, which forms its nest of the shape of a sugar-loaf, and as large or larger. These are suspended from trees, particularly *Roy. Mil. Chron. quoted in Kirby and Spence.

from the oak, and are much more populous than our common hives.

Wild honey-bees of some species appear also to abound in Africa. Mr. Park, in his second volume of travels, tells us that some of his associates imprudently attempted to rob a numerous hive of its honey, when the exasperated bees, rushing out to defend their property, attacked their assailants with great fury, and quickly compelled the whole com pany to fly.

At the Cape of Good Hope the bees themselves must be less formidable, or more easily managed, as their hives are sought for with avidity. Nature has there provided man with a singular and very efficient assistant in a bird, most appropriately named the Honey-guide (Indicator major, VIEILLOT; Cuculus indicator, LATHAM). The honey-guide, so far from being alarmed at the presence of man, appears anxious to court his acquaintance, and flits from tree to tree with an expressive note of invitation, the meaning of which is well known both to the colonists and the Hottentots. A person invited by the honey-guide seldom refuses to follow it onwards till it stops, as it is certain to do, at some hollow tree containing a bee-hive, usually well stored with honey and wax. It is probable that the bird finds itself inadequate to the attack of a legion of bees, or to penetrate into the interior of the hive, and is theuce led to invite an agent more powerful than itself. The person invited, indeed, always leaves the bird a share of the spoil, as it would be considered sacrilege to rob it of its due, or in any way to injure so useful a creature.

The Americans, who have not the African honeyguide, employ several well-known methods to track bees to their hives. One of the most common, though ingenious modes, is to place a piece of bee

K

bread on a flat surface, a tile for instance, surround ing it with a circle of wet white paint. The bee, whose habit it is always to alight on the edge of any plane, has to travel through the paint to reach the bee-bread. When, therefore, she flies off, the observer can track her by the white on her body. The same operation is repeated at another place, at some distance from the first, and at right angles to the beeline, just ascertained. The position of the hive is easily determined, for it lies in the angle made by the intersection of the bee-lines. Another method is described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1721. The bee-hunter decoys, by a bait of honey, some of the bees into his trap, and when he has secured as many as he judges will suit his purpose, he incloses one in a tube, and letting it fly, marks its course by a pocket compass. Departing to some distance, he liberates another, observes its course, and in this manner determines the position of the hive, upon the principle already detailed. These methods of beehunting depend upon the insect's habit of always flying in a right line to its home. Those who have read Cooper's tale of the 'Prairie' must well remember the expression of " lining a bee to its hive."

In reading these and similar accounts of the bees of distant parts of the world, we must not conclude that the descriptions refer to the same species as the common honey-bee. There are numerous species of social-bees which, while they differ in many circumstances, agree in the practice of storing up honey, in the same way as we have numerous species of the mason-bee and of the humblebee. Of the latter Mr. Stephens enumerates no less than forty-two species indigenous to Britain.

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CHAPTER VII.

CARPENTRY OF TREE-HOPPERS AND SAW-FLIES.

THE operations of an insect in boring into a leaf or a bud to form a lodgment for its eggs appear very simple. The tools, however, by which these effects are performed are very complicated and curious. In the case of gall-flies (Cynips), the operation itself is not so remarkable as its subsequent chemical effects. These effects are so different from any others that may be classed under the head of Insect Architecture, that we shall reserve them for the latter part of this volume-although, with reference to the use of galls, the protection of eggs and larvæ, they ought to find a place here. We shall, however, at present confine ourselves to those which simply excavate a nest, without producing a tumour.

The first of these insects which we shall mention is celebrated for its song, by the ancient Greek poets, under the name of Τεττιξ. The Romans called it Cicada, which we sometimes, but erroneously, translate "grasshopper;" for the grasshoppers belong to an entirely different order of insects. We shall, therefore, take the liberty of calling the Cicada, Treehoppers, to which the cuckoo-spit insect (Tettigonia spumaria, OLIV.) is allied; but there is only one of the true cicada hitherto ascertained to be British, namely, the Cicada hæmatodes (LINN.), which was taken in the New Forest, Hampshire, by Mr. Daniel Bydder.

M. Réaumur was exceedingly anxious to study the economy of those insects; but they not being indigenous in the neighbourhood of Paris, he commis

sioned his friends to send him some from more southern latitudes, and he procured in this way specimens not only from the South of France and from Italy, but also from Egypt. From these specimens he has given the best account of them yet published; for though, as he tells us, he had never had the pleasure of seeing one of them alive, the more interesting parts of their structure can be studied as well in dead as in living specimens. We ourselves possess several specimens from New Holland, upon which we have verified some of the more interesting observations of Réaumur.

Virgil tells us, that in his time "the cicada burst the very shrubs with their querulous music*;" but we may well suppose that he was altogether unacquainted with the singular instrument by means of which they can actually (not poetically) cut grooves in the branches they select for depositing their eggs. It is the male, as in the case of birds, which fills the woods with his song; while the female, though mute, is no less interesting to the naturalist on account of her curious ovipositor. This instrument, like all those with which insects are furnished by nature for cutting, notching, or piercing, is composed of a horny substance, and is also considerably larger than the size of the tree-hopper would proportionally indicate. It can on this account be partially examined without a microscope, being, in some of the larger species, no less than five linest in length. The ovipositor, or auger (tarière) as Réaumur calls it, is lodged in a sheath which lies in a groove of the terminating ring of the belly. It requires only a very slight pressure to cause the instrument to protrude from its sheath, when it appears to the naked eye to be of equal thickness throughout except at the point, * Cantu querulæ rumpent arbusta cicada. Georg. iii. 328. A line is about the twelfth part of an inch.