Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/289

Rh a small quantity of honey-comb, and draws round it a circle of white paint. The bee, on approaching the honey, is necessitated generally to cross the circular line, and, of course, its body becomes bedaubed with the colouring matter, and the direction of its route when flying is thereby easily ascertained. The stratagem is repeated at some distance to the right or left of the first station, and the direction of the flight again marked. As the bee always flies in a direct line to her nest, it will be found where the two lines of flight intersect each other. Another mode consists in placing at the favourite resorts of the bees, a piece of reed or tube of some kind, having one of its ends closed up; Into this they are enticed by the smell of a little honey, previously deposited within. The hunter, when a sufficient number has entered, seizes the reed, and claps his thumb on the open end. He then allows one of the captives to escape, and follows the direction in which it flies; when it is out of sight, he releases another, and another in succession, continuing the pursuit till, by the aid of these guides, he reaches the prize. The bee in North America has to encounter, amongst the feathered tribe, an enemy still more formidable than the honey-hunter. This is the Kingbird, or Tyrant Flycatcher, (Muscicapa Tyrannus, Pl. XXVI.) found in both the southern and northern states of the Union, and which, according to Mr. Hector St. John, is so fell an enemy to the honey-gathering tribes, that upon dissecting one which he had shot, he took from its crop as many as 171