HIVE-BEES. 109 



speedily secured with threads of propohs, while some 

 were also put on the orifices; but we could not seize 

 the moment when they were varnished, though it 

 may be easily conceived how it is done."* 



This is not the only use to which bees apply the 

 propohs. They are extremely solicitous to remove 

 such insects or foreign bodies as happen to get ad- 

 mission into the hive. When so light as not to 

 exceed their powers, they first kill the insect with 

 their stings, and then drag it out with their teeth. 

 But it sometimes happens, as was first observed by 

 Maraldi, and since by Reaumur and others, that an 

 ill-fated snail creeps into the hive : this is no sooner 

 perceived than it is attacked on all sides, and stung 

 to death. But how are the bees to carry out so 

 heavy a burthen? Such a labour would be in vain. 

 To prevent the noxious smell which would arise from 

 its putrefaction, they immediately embalm it, by co- 

 vering every part of its body with propolis, through 

 which no effluvia can escape. When a snail with a 

 shell gets entrance, to dispose of it gives much less 

 trouble and expense to the bees. As soon as it re- 

 ceives the first wound from a sting, it naturally 

 retires within its shell. In this case, the bees, instead 

 of pasting it all over with propohs, content them- 

 selves with gluing all round the margin of the shell, 

 which is sufficient to render the animal for ever im- 

 movably fixed. 



Mr Knight, the learned and ingenious President of 

 the Horticultural Society, discovered by accident an 

 artificial substance, more attractive than any of the 

 resins experimentally tried by Reaumur. Having 

 caused the decorticated part of a tree to be covered 

 with a cement, composed of bees'-ws'.x and turpentine, 

 he observed that this was frequente d by hive-bees, 

 who, finding it to be a very good propohs ready made, 



* Huber on Bees, p. 408, 

 VOL, IV. 10 



