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The Swarm: California

Muir pays his tribute to California Bruin's fondness for honey, thus: - "Bears, too, roam the sweet wilderness, their blunt, shaggy forms harmonizing well with the trees and tangled bushes, and with the bees, also, notwithstanding the disparity in size. They are fond of all good things, and enjoy them to the utmost, with but little troublesome discrimination, - flowers and leaves as well as berries, and the bees themselves as well as their honey. Though the California bears have as yet had but little experience with honey-bees, they often succeed in reaching their bountiful stores, and it seems doubtful whether bees themselves enjoy honey with so great a relish. By means of their powerful teeth and claws they can gnaw and tear open almost any hive conveniently accessible. Most honey-bees, however, in search of a home are wise enough to make choice of a hollow in a living tree, a considerable distance above the ground, when such places are to be had; then they are pretty secure, for though the smaller black and brown bears climb well, they are unable to break into strong hives while compelled to exert themselves to keep from falling, and at the same time to endure the stings of the fighting bees without having their paws free to rub them off. But woe to the black bumble-bees discovered in their mossy nests in the ground! With a few strokes of their huge paws the bears uncover the entire establishment, and before time is given for a general buzz, bees old and young, larvæ, honey, stings, nest, and all are taken in one ravishing mouthful."

According to the ancients the bear's object in despoiling bee-hives was not wholly epicurean. Pliny explains that when bears come forth from their winter sleep, still dull and torpid, - "Their eyesight is dull, for which reason in especial, they seek the combs of bees, in order that, from the bees stinging them in the throat and drawing blood, the oppression in the head may be relieved." In Poland and other parts of Russia the bear's fondness for honey is taken advantage of by the wily hunters, who, knowing Bruin's weakness, set bear-traps before the beetrees. Not only bears and Indians but white men as well rejoice in the discovery of a bee-tree and undertake almost any labor to get the honey from it. Burroughs, in his "Idyl of the Honey-Bee," takes us on many interesting and successful hunts for bee-trees. The hunter "lines" the bees by catching some and putting them into a box containing honey. As soon as the bee has filled itself with honey he allows it to fly, when it rises up in the air to get its bearings and makes a "beeline" for home. As soon as he is sure of the direction taken by the bees, he moves the box and again watches their flight. The bee-tree will be found at the point of intersection of the two lines. This method of lining bees sounds extremely easy on paper; it is not so easy in the forest, however, as anybody can discover by trying, though an experienced beehunter often becomes remarkably skilful in quickly locating the bee-trees.

Bees have many enemies, as is but natural to those possessing a treasure desired by so many other creatures. Bears eat bees, honey and all, but they are not the only four-legged honey thieves, as Reynard in some places has a very bad reputation. Huish in his book upon bees says of him: - "These rascals of foxes eat the bees as well as the honey, but it is the honey to which they are the most partial. For The Swarm two years a particular fox came every winter to overthrow my hives. I put a chicken and some bread to amuse him, and some poison to kill him; but, no, the cunning thief would not touch either; he went directly to the hives. Mark the sagacity of the animal; he would not come in summer, when the bees were in full vigor, as he knew in what manner he would be received; but he steals slyly to the hives when the inhabitants are in a state of torpor, and thus obtains their treasure without incurring any danger himself."

Pigs have been known to overturn hives for the sake of their contents.

Some species of badger are very fond of honey, and Menzel tells of one that bites the trees containing wild honey out of rage because he cannot clamber up to it, and by the traces of these bites the inhabitants discover the bee-trees.

In South America is found the honey-bear, or kinkajou, about as large as a cat, very strong and active, and a great destroyer of wild bees, for the sake of getting their honey. It lives in trees and has a long tongue, which helps it to appropriate the stolen sweets.

There is an East Indian bear, the sloth-bear, or aswail, so fond of honey that it is named mellursus, or the honey-bear. The mouse in some places is a great nuisance to beekeepers, making its nest in the roof of straw hives, whence it is able to sally forth and regale itself at its pleasure. Some birds have an appetite for bees, which has led to their banishment by the bee-keeper.

Among these the tomtit, or titmouse, has a very bad reputation, being accused by no less an authority than Buffon of scratching and tapping at the hives to induce the sentinel bees to come forth, when one after the other they are caught and swallowed. ১ But the bee-eating feats of the titmouse, who is satisfied with ten or a dozen honeyed morsels for breakfast, pale before the superior power of the American king-bird, or bee-martin, from the craw of one of which was once taken a hundred and seventy-one bees! They had been swallowed so quickly that many were still alive; and when they were laid upon a blanket in the sun, "fifty-four of them returned to life, licked themselves clean, and joyfully went back to their hives."