50 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. III. 



plasterers, who only bring- the raw material, but do 

 not give it shape. The former he calls the nurse- 

 bees ; the latter, wax-workers. 



Wax is not, like honey, a simple substance ex- 

 tracted by bees from the flower. On the contrary, 

 it is a secretion found in the form of scales under 

 their belly. The wax-workers, having 1 gorged them- 

 selves with the nectar of flowers, hang motionless 

 in festoons in the hive ; and in the course of twenty- 

 four hours scales of a white matter like talc are 

 formed under the rings of the abdomen. The nurse- 

 bees secrete wax too, but in very inconsiderable 

 quantities. Huber having provided a hive with ho- 

 ney and water, it was resorted to in crowds by bees, 

 which, having satisfied their appetite, returned to the 

 hive. They then formed festoons, remained mo- 

 tionless for twenty-four hours, and after a time scales 

 of wax appeared. An adequate supply of wax for 

 the construction of a comb having been elaborated, 

 one of the bees disengaged ^tself from the centre of 

 the group, and clearing a spadte about an inch in dia 

 meter, at the top of the hive, applied the pincers of 

 one of its legs to its side, detached a scale of wax, 

 and immediately began to mince it with the tongue. 

 During the operation, this organ was made to as- 

 sume every variety of shape ; sometimes it appeared 

 like a trowel, then flattened like a spatula, and at 

 other times like a pencil ending in a point. The 

 scale, moistened with a frothy liquid, became gluti- 

 nous, and was drawn out like a riband. This bee, 

 which Huber has immortalized by the epithet of 

 " founder," then attached all the wax it could con- 

 coct to the vault of the hive, and went its way ; a 

 second now succeeded, and did the like ; a third fol- 

 lowed, but, owing to some blunder, did not put the 

 wax in the same line with that placed by its prede- 

 cessor ; upon which, says Huber, " another bee, ap- 

 parently sensible of the defect, removed the dis- 

 placed wax, and carrying it to the former heap, de- 



