248 SPECIAL INSTINCTS. 



by excavating at the same rate, and by endeavoring to make 

 equal spherical hollows, but never allowing the spheres to 

 break into each other. Now bees, as may be clearly seen by 

 examining the edge of a growing comb, do make a rough, 

 circumferential wall or rim all round the comb ; and they 

 gnaw this away from the opposite sides, always working 

 circularly as they deepen each cell. They do not make the 

 whole three-sided pyramidal base of any one cell at the same 

 time, but only that one rhombic plate which stands on the 

 extreme growing margin, or the two plates, as the case may 

 be ; and they never complete the upper edges of the rhom- 

 bic plates, until the hexagonal walls are commenced. Some 

 of these statements differ from those made by the justly 

 celebrated elder Huber, but I am convinced of their accuracy ; 

 and if I had space, I could show that they are conformable 

 with my theory. 



Huber's statement, that the very first cell is excavated 

 out of a little parallel-sided wall of wax, is not, as far as I 

 have seen, strictly correct ; the first commencement having 

 always been a little hood of wax ; but I will not here enter 

 on details. We see how important a part excavation plays 

 in the construction of the cells ; but it would be a great 

 error to suppose that the bees cannot build up a rough wall 

 of wax in the proper position — that is, along the plane of 

 intersection between two adjoining spheres. I have several 

 specimens showing clearly that they can do this. Even in 

 the rude circumferential rim or wall of wax round a growing 

 comb, flexures may sometimes be observed, corresponding in 

 position to the planes of the rhombic basal plates of future 

 cells. But the rough wall of wax has in every case to be 

 finished off, by being largely gnawed away on both sides. 

 The manner in which the bees build is curious ; they always 

 make the first rough wall from ten to twenty times thicker 

 than the excessively thin finished wall of the cell, which 

 will ultimately be left. We shall understand how they work, 

 by supposing masons first to pile up a broad ridge of cement, 

 and then to begin cutting it away equally on both sides near 

 the ground, till a smooth, very thin wall is left in the middle ; 

 the masons always piling up the cut away cement, and add- 

 ing fresh cement on the summit of the ridge. We shall thus 

 have a thin wall steadily growing upward, but always crowned 

 by a gigantic coping. From all the cells, both those just 

 commenced and those completed, being thus crowned by a 

 strong coping of wax, the bees can cluster and crawl over 



