CH. v.] THE CARPENTER BEE. 87 



bees under a glass case, and gave them a piece of 

 comb composed of ten silken cocoons, so uneven 

 that it had no foundation on which it could rest 

 firmly. The bees were sorely disquieted, as they 

 could not, on account of the unsteadiness of the 

 comb, cluster on the young. Their affection sug- 

 gested, however, an ingenious expedient. Several 

 of them mounted upon the comb, and fixing their 

 hindermost feet on its edge, and the foremost on the 

 table, they succeeded in rendering the mass suffi- 

 ciently steady to allow their comrades to cluster on 

 the cocoons. For three days sets relieved each 

 other ; at the end of which time they had prepared 

 wax enough to build pillars to fix the comb. By 

 some accident these pillars were displaced, when 

 the affectionate creatures resorted a second time to 

 the same means, and assumed the same constrained 

 posture. At last, compassionating their distress, 

 Huber did that for them which they had been endea- 

 vouring so earnestly to do for themselves. It has 

 been very naturally asked, " If, in this instance, 

 these little animals were not guided by a process 

 of reasoning ?" If this question be answered in the 

 negative, it would be difficult to show the difference 

 between reason and instinct : for it may be assumed 

 as a certainty, that the circumstances under which 

 our rustics were placed had never occurred to them 

 during the course of their short existence, nor proba- 

 bly to ten of their species since the creation. 



There are some species of bees which lead a soli- 

 tary life, and seem to exercise a mechanical art. 

 The first of these performs the labours of a carpen- 

 ter, the next those of a mason, and the third may be 

 termed the upholsterer. The wood-boring or car^ 

 penter-bee is almost as large as the humble bee, not so 

 downy, but more deeply coloured. In spring it 

 seeks out for some old post or withered part of a 

 tree, to begin its habitation — sedulously shunning 

 the sappy and gieen wood, which probably from its 



