HIVE-BEES. 101 



the top. Those first gaining the slips fixed themselves 

 there by the fore-feet ; others, scrambling up the sides, 

 joined them, by holding their legs with their own, and 

 they thus formed a kind of chain, fastened by the two ends 

 to the upper parts of the receiver, and served as ladders or 

 a bridge to the workers enlarging their number. The 

 latter were united in a cluster, hanging like an inverted 

 pyramid from the top to the bottom of the hive. 



" The country then affording little honey, v/e provided 

 the bees with syrup of sugar, in order to hasten their 

 labour. They crowded to the edge of a vessel containing 

 it ; and, having satisfied themselves, returned to the group. 

 We were now struck with the absolute repose of this hive, 

 contrasted with the usual agitation of bees. Meanwhile, 

 the nurse-bees alone went to forage in the country ; they 

 returned with pollen, kept guard at the entrance of the 

 hive, cleansed it, and stopped up its edges with propolis. 

 The wax-workers remained motionless above fifteen hours : 

 the curtain of bees, consisting always of the same indi- 

 viduals, assured us that none replaced them. Some hours 

 later, we remarked that almost all these individuals had 

 wax scales under the rings ; and next day this phenomenon 

 was still more general. The bees forming the external 

 layer of the cluster, having now somewhat altered their 

 position, enabled us to see their bellies distinctly. By the 

 projection of the wax scales, the rings seemed edged with 

 white. The curtain of bees became rent in several places, 

 and some commotion began to be observed in the hive. 



" Convinced that the combs would originate in the 

 centre of the swarm, our whole attention was then directed 

 towards the roof of the glass. A worker at this time de- 

 tached 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 a 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 limbs, seized a scale of wax 



