Insect architecture / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insect architecture / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    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 im- prudently 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 hag there provided man with a singular and very effi- cient assistant in a bird, most appropriately named the Honey-Guide (Indicator major, Viziti0oT; Cu- culus indicator, Laruam). 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 on- wards 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 thence led to invite an agent more powerfa! than itself. The person invited, indeed, always leaves the ird a share of the spoil, as it would be considered sacrilege to rob it of its due, orin any way to hurt so useful a creature. The Americans, who have not the African honey- guide, employ several well-known methods to track bees to their hives. One of the mest oommon though ingenious modes, is to place a piece of bee-
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