BEES AND WASPS GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 185 



themselves against their enemies. The bulwark was de- 

 stroyed again in 1808. 



Again, Huber (loc. cit., torn, ii., p. 280) gives a case 

 of apparent exercise of reason, or power of inference 

 from a particular case to other and general cases. A 

 piece of comb fell down and was fixed in its new position by 

 wax. The bees then strengthened the attachments of 

 all the other combs, clearly because they inferred that 

 they too might be in danger of falling. This is a very 

 remarkable case, and leads Huber to exclaim, * I admit 

 that I was unable to avoid a feeling of astonishment in 

 the presence of a fact from which the purest reason seemed 

 to shine out.' 



A closely similar, and therefore corroborative case of 

 an even more remarkable kind is thus narrated in Watson's 

 ' Reasoning Power of Animals ' (p. 448) : 



Dr. Brown, in his book on the bee, gives another illustration 

 of the reasoning power of bees, observed by a friend of his. A 

 centre comb in a hive, being overburdened with honey, had 

 parted from its fastenings, and was pressing against another 

 comb, so as to prevent the passage of the bees between them. 

 This accident excited great bustle in the colony, and as soon as 

 their proceedings could be observed, it was found that they had 

 constructed two horizontal beams between the two combs, and 

 had removed enough of the honey and wax above them to admit 

 the passage of a bee, while the detached comb had been secured 

 by another beam, and fastened to the window with spare wax. 

 But what was most remarkable was, that, when the comb was 

 thus fixed, they removed the horizontal beams first constructed, 

 as being of no further use. The whole occupation took about 

 ten days. 



Again, Mr. Darwin's MS. quotes from Sir B. Brodie's 

 * Psychological Inquiries ' (1854, p. 88) the following case, 

 which is analogous to the above, except that the supports 

 required had to be made in a vertical instead of in a 

 horizontal direction : 



On one occasion, when a large portion of the honeycomb 

 had been broken off, they pursued another course. The frag- 

 ment had somehow become fixed in the middle of the hive, and 

 the bees immediately began to erect a new structure of comb on 

 the floor, so placed as to form a pillar supporting the fragment, 



