Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/280

276 guide lost his horse, and many of the people were much stung about the hands and face." On the eastern side of the same continent, the bees appear to resemble those of the western coast in their colour and diminutive size, but differ from them in the mode of constructing their nests, which are formed under the surface of the ground, while those of the others are lodged in the hollows of trees. To the southward, and in the Hottentot countries, the insects are found in great numbers; but, as appears from the reports of some late travellers, never build their nests in the trunks of trees; and though they are sometimes found nestling under the surface of the ground, make their dwellings chiefly in the clefts of the rocks; and one large rock in the Cape Colony has so long served as a favourite residence to these insects, as to obtain from the Dutch settlers the name of "Honing Kliss," i.e. Honey-rock. The following anecdotes relating to this species are from Burchell's Travels in Africa, (Vol. I. 377, and II. 81):—"My bedding having been left out in the air all day, we found in the evening the mattress taken possession of by a swarm of bees which had taken shelter under it for the night; and as a favour to these industrious creatures, we left them undisturbed. They remained there till the next day at noon, when they departed in quest of some convenient chink in the rocks for their hive. Their manner of swarming appeared to us to differ in nothing from that of the common English bee. The same species, or others of the genus Apis, abounds in every part of this continent