mSTINCT OF INSECTS. 545 



down by the weight of the honey, did not the bees ensure their stability 

 by introducing large irregular masses of wax between their edges and the 

 sides of the hive. A striking instance of this art of securing their maga- 

 zines occurred to Huber. A comb, not having been originally well fastened 

 to the top of liis glass hive, fell down during the winter amongst the 

 other combs, preserving, however, its parallelism with them. The bees 

 could not fill up the space between its upper edge and the top of the hive, 

 because they never construct combs of old wax, and they had not then an 

 o|)portunity of procuring new : at a more favourable season they would 

 not have hesitated to build a new comb upon the old one ; but it being in- 

 expedient at that period to expend their provision of honey in the elabora- 

 tion of wax, they provided for the stability of the fallen comb by another 

 process. They furnished themselves with wax from the other combs, by 

 gnawing away the rims of the cells more elongated than the rest, and then 

 betook themselves in crowds, some upon the edges of the fallen comb, 

 others between its sides and those of the adjoining combs ; and there 

 securely fixed it, by constructing several ties of different shapes between it 

 and the glass of the hive : some were pillars, others buttresses, and others 

 beams artfully disposed and adapted to the localities of the surfaces joined. 

 Nor did they content themselves with repairing the accidents which theiii- 

 masonry had experienced ; they provided against those which might 

 happen, and appeared to profit by the warning given by the fall of one of 

 the combs to consolidate the others, and prevent a second accident of the 

 same nature. These last had not been displaced, and appeared solidly 

 attached by their base ; whence Huber was not a little surprised to see 

 the bees strengthen their principal points of connection by making them 

 much thicker than before with old wax, and forming numerous ties and 

 braces to unite them more closely to each other, and to the walls of their 

 habitation. What was still more extraordinary, all this happened in the 

 middle of January, at a period when the bee;- ordinarily cluster at the top 

 of the hive, and do not engage in labours of tiiis kind.^ 



You will admit, I think, that these proofs of the resources of the archi- 

 tectural instinct of bees are truly admirable. If, in the case of the substi- 

 tution of mitys for the first range of waxen cells, this procedure iiwariably 

 took place in every bee-hive at a Jixed period — when, for example, the 

 combs are two-thirds filled with honey — it would be less surprising ; 

 but there is nothing of this invariable character about it. It does not, 

 as Huber expressly informs us '^, occur at any marked and regular period, 

 but appears to depend on several circumstances not always combined. 

 Sometimes the beescontenttliemselves with bordering the sides of the upper 

 cells with propolis alone, without altering their form or giving them greater 

 thickness. And it is not less remarkable that, from the instances last cited, 

 it appears that they are not confined to one kind of cement for strengthen- 

 ing and supporting their combs, but avail themselves of propoHs, wax, or a 

 mixture of both, as circumstances direct. 



Not to weary you with examples of the modifications of instinct we arC' 

 considering, I shall introduce but three more : — the first, of the mode ir» 

 which bees extend the dimensions of an old comb ; the second, of that 

 ■which they adopt in constructing the male cells and connecting them witb 



1 Huber, ii. 280. » Ibid, ii.^84. note *. 



