diff --git a/Examples/python/std_map/example.i b/Examples/python/std_map/example.i
index 1dcf8a536..36354a882 100644
--- a/Examples/python/std_map/example.i
+++ b/Examples/python/std_map/example.i
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@
 /* instantiate the required template specializations */
 namespace std {
   /* remember to instantiate the key,value pair! */
-  %template() pair<std::string,double>;
-  %template() pair<std::string,int>;
   %template(DoubleMap) map<std::string,double>;
   %template() map<std::string,int>;
 }
diff --git a/Lib/std/std_map.i b/Lib/std/std_map.i
index d63a08084..487223604 100644
--- a/Lib/std/std_map.i
+++ b/Lib/std/std_map.i
@@ -34,20 +34,6 @@
 %enddef
 
 
-// **** Note ****
-// 
-// If you are going to use a map, you need to instantiate both the 
-// map and the pair class:
-//
-//   %template(pair_ii) std::pair<int, int>;
-//   %template(map_ii) std::map<int, int>;
-//
-// or
-//
-//   %template() std::pair<int, int>;
-//   %template(map_ii) std::map<int, int>;
-//
-// **** Note ****
 // ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 // std::map
 // 
@@ -99,6 +85,20 @@ namespace std {
     %traits_swigtype(_Key);
     %traits_swigtype(_Tp);	    
 
+    %fragment(SWIG_Traits_frag(std::pair< _Key, _Tp >), "header",
+	      fragment=SWIG_Traits_frag(_Key),
+	      fragment=SWIG_Traits_frag(_Tp),
+	      fragment="StdPairTraits") {
+      namespace swig {
+	template <>  struct traits<std::pair< _Key, _Tp > > {
+	  typedef pointer_category category;
+	  static const char* type_name() {
+	    return "std::pair<" #_Key "," #_Tp " >";
+	  }
+	};
+      }
+    }
+
     %fragment(SWIG_Traits_frag(std::map<_Key, _Tp, _Compare, _Alloc >), "header",
 	      fragment=SWIG_Traits_frag(std::pair<_Key, _Tp >),
 	      fragment="StdMapTraits") {