56 IXSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



In .the latter part of the season, when the hive is populous 

 and can afford more hands, there is an ingenious division of 

 this labour. A file of bees, to the number sometimes of 

 half a dozen, is established, from the nest to the moss or 

 grass which they intend to use, the heads of all the file of 

 bees being turned from the nest and towards the material. 

 The last bee of the file lays hold of some of the moss with 

 her mandibles, disentangles it from the rest, and having 

 carded it with her fore-legs into a sort of felt or small 

 bundle, she pushes it under hei* body to the next bee, wdio 

 passes it in the same manner to the next, and so on till it 

 is brought to the border of the nest, — in the same way as 

 we sometimes see sugar-loaves conveyed from a cart to a 

 warehouse, by a file of porters throwing them from one to 

 another. 



The elevation of the dome, which is all built from the 

 interior, is from four to six inches above the level of the 

 field. Beside the moss or grass, they frequently employ 

 coarse wax to form ihe ceiling of the vault, for the pur- 

 pose of keeping out rain, and preventing high winds from 

 destroying it. Before this finishing is given to the nest, 

 we have remarked, that on a fine sunshiny day the upper 

 portion of the dome was opened to the extent of more 

 than an inch, in order, we suppose, to forward the hatching 

 of the eggs in the interior ; but on the approach of night 

 this was carefully covered in again. It was remarkable 

 that the opening which we have just mentioned was never 

 used by the he^s for either their entrance or their exit from 

 the nest, though they were all at work there, and, of course, 

 would have found it the readiest and easiest passage. But 

 they invariably made their exit and their entrance through 

 the covert- way or gallery which opens at the bottom of the 

 nest, and, in some nests, is about a foot long and half an 

 inch wide. This is, no doubt, intended for concealment 

 from field-mice, pole-cats, wasps, and other depredators. 



On removing a portion of the dome and bringing the 

 interior of the structure into view, we find little of the 

 architectural regularity so conspicuous in the combs of a 

 common bee-hive ; instead of this symmetr}', there are 



