HIVE-BEES. 117 



the centre of the swarm, our whole attention was 

 then directed towards the roof of the glass. A worker 

 at this time detached itself from one of the central 

 festoons of the cluster, separated itself from the 

 crowd, and, with its head, drove away the bees at 

 the beginning of the row in the middle of the arch, 

 turning round to form q, space an inch or more in 

 diameter, in which it might move freely. It then 

 fixed itself in the centre of the space thus cleared. 



^' The worker now employing the pincers at the 

 joint of one of the third pair of its hmbs, seized a 

 scale of wax projecting from a ring, and brought it 

 forward to its mouth with the claws of its fore-legs, 



Wax-worker laying the foundation of thefrst Cell- 



where it appeared in a vertical position. We re- 

 marked, that, with its claws, it turned the wax in 

 every necessary direction; that the edge of the scale 

 was immediately broken down, and the fragments 

 having been accumulated in the hollow of the mandi- 

 bles, issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, impreg- 

 nated with a frothy liquid by the tongue. The 

 tongue itself assumed the most varied shapes, and 

 executed the most comphcated operations, — being 

 sometimes flattened like a trowel, and at other times 

 pointed like a pencil; and, after imbuing the whole 

 substance of the ribbon, pushed it forward again 

 into the mandibles, whence it was drawn out a 

 second time, but in an opposite direction. 



" At length the bee applied these particles of wax 

 to the vault of the hive, where the saliva impreg- 

 nating them promoted their adhesion, and also com- 



