Du Chaillu, Adventures in Equatorial Africa, pp. 312, 313. Footnote 78: J. G. Wood, Homes Without Hands, p. 452. Footnote 79: W. F. Kirby, Marvels of Ant life, p. 73. Footnote 80: Dr. Beccari’s account, quoted in the _Popular Science Review_, 1875. Footnote 81: Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua, pp. 219, 220. Footnote 82: The ideal of what a short-billed tumbler pigeon’s head should be. Footnote 83: McCook, The Honey-Ant of the Garden of the Gods. Footnote 84: The American Naturalist, February, 1902. Footnote 85: Belt, The Naturalist in Nicaragua, pp. 28, 29. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XVIII Bees and wasps—A bee’s masonry—What happens to caterpillars—Living food—Variations in instinct—A wasp’s implement—Unreal distinctions—A cautious observer—Bees that make tunnels—A wonderful instinct—Leaf-cutting bees—Nests made of poppy-leaves—Born in the purple—Commercial philosophy—The appreciative white man—Economy of labour—Bees and rats—Busy shadows—A bee double. THE consideration of ants naturally leads to that of bees, but of the life and doings of the hive-bee—made common now in a hundred practical treatises and bee-keeper’s manuals—it is not the design of this little book to treat. Wasps are less written about, but even here, in a work which can only deal with a very few insects out of a very great many, a choice may be permitted one, so I will merely observe, in regard to the common species, that in my opinion wasps are much less irascible than bees—in fact, quite good-natured compared to them—but at the same time, owing to their room-entering, table-pillaging propensities, much greater nuisances, so that they deserve stern treatment, but a more charitable estimate of their character. Hornets, again—which seldom offend in this way—appear to me to be very peaceable insects, as though, wielding a mighty weapon, they felt that they had no need to use it except on “a striking emergency.” Such a definition would apply to the running of a stage-coach, diligence, omnibus, waggon, etc.—in fact, any large vehicle—into their nest on the highway, in which case the consequences, one may well believe, would be appalling. Never having been in such a position myself, and being without trustworthy information on the subject, my powers of description are useless here, but there is a way of dealing with this emergency also. This reminds me, however, of an account which I have read somewhere or other of hornets having once stopped a Roman army. This may seem surprising nowadays, but we must remember that in classical times armies did not possess artillery. There is therefore nothing invidious in the opinion which I here express, that however much they may have stopped the Romans, they would never stop the Japanese.