HOW HONEYBEES PRODUCE HONEYCOMB 



o?7 



"bees do things because they can't 



HELP IT-" 

 Iowa State Horticultural Society: 

 Eugene Secor, a Director, Forest 

 City, Iowa. 



I like the way you treat your thesis. 



I have thought for a good many years 



that people generally attribute too 



much intelligence to the honeybee. In 



all my fifty years' experience with 



them I've never seen any indication of 



thought. Intelligence signifies power 



to reason — initiative. They do many 



things that show a lack of reason, but 



nothing that leads one to think they 



have improved on any of their original 



processes. They do things because 



they can't help it. They were made 



that way. Maeterlinck speaks of "the 



spirit of the hive," I believe. That's 



a good definition of most of their actions. 

 ***** 



"undoubtedly due to pressure/' 

 Connecticut Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, New Haven, Connecticut: 

 W. E. Britton, Ph.D., State Entomo- 

 logist. 



I have read your interesting article 

 in The Guide to Nature for February 

 and have no quarrel with the ideas 

 which you have expressed. The hexa- 

 gonal shape of the cells of the honey- 

 comb is undoubtedly due to pressure 

 as you have stated. 



***** 



"your well written article." 

 American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City : Frank E. Lutz, En- 

 tomologist. 



I have read your well written article 

 on honeycomb with a great deal of in- 

 terest. I had supposed that all up-to- 

 date students of bees believed that the 

 roughly hexagonal shape of the cells 

 comes about in the way you state but, 

 from what you say, it appears that they 

 do not. 



***** 



"simple and SENSIBLE." 

 "Popular Science Monthly," New York 



City : Waldemar Kaempff ert, Editor. 



As for honeybees, I must frankly re- 

 peat that I know nothing about them. 

 But I will say this for your theory. It 

 is simple and sensible." Personally, I 

 am more willing to accept it than I am 

 the theories which presuppose in a bee 

 the abilities of a Sir Christopher Wren. 



Big Archaeological Collection. 



Through the generosity of Dr. W. I. 

 Hildburgh, the American Museum of 

 Natural History has become the fortu- 

 nate possessor of an archaeological col- 

 lection made up of some four thousand 

 specimens from Central New York 

 state, which well illustrate Iroquois In- 

 dian life in prehistoric and colonial 

 times. It is a remarkably full and valu- 

 able collection, rivaled only, if at all. by 

 that in the New York State Museum at 

 Albany. 



The Hildburgh collection has for 

 many years been known to archaeolo- 

 gists as one containing exceedingly 

 rare types of stone and pottery pipes, 

 gorgets, banner stones curiously carved 

 stones used for ornamentation or as bad- 

 ges of authority, native copper imple- 

 ments including kettles and knives, stone 

 axes, chisels and pottery. It also con- 

 tains a number of the ornamental bone 

 combs for which the ancient Iroquois 

 were noted. One of the specimens, 

 without doubt the finest example of 

 its kind, is ten and one-fourth inches in 

 length, with teeth one and three-fourths 

 inches long. The carving represents 

 two quadrupeds — probably wolves — 

 rampant, with upturned mouths holding 

 a serpent's head. Another specimen has 

 a man standing behind and probably lay- 

 ing hold of a rampant animal whose 

 head is gone. One has two bears ram- 

 pant. In this only the teeth are miss- 

 ing. Another has an animal standing 

 with the head turned over the back of 

 the comb. The tail of the animal and 

 the teeth of the comb are broken. Still 

 another is suggestive of European 

 contact, inasmuch as the design con- 

 sists of a human figure with buttons 

 down the front of the garment, prob- 

 ably imitating a military costume. A 

 number of bone fishhooks are also in 

 the collection. Owing to their fragil- 

 ity, such specimens are rarely found 

 intact. 



The collection, as a whole the most 

 complete now in New York, has been 

 presented by Dr. Hildburgh as a me- 

 morial of his father, the late Henry 

 hildburgh. 



Every path is filled with beauty, 



If only we would look: 

 Could seeing but be made a duty, 



Behold an open book! 



— Emma Peirce. 



