EEY. H. E. PEEL BEES AND BEE-KEEPIXG. 191 



order or design. The wasp and the hornet, though they never 

 attempt to winter in their nests as the honey-bee does, come nearer 

 to this bee than any other insect in the structure of their habita- 

 tions. The wasp, though she often builds her nest, as it is called, 

 in the bank by the hedge side, will still often build it in the open, 

 and the hornet usually chooses the branch of a tree or a beam in an 

 out-house as an eligible building site. The dilference of construc- 

 tion between the two buildings is, however, very great. The wasp 

 builds her nest of paper, made from materials gathered from the 

 outside world, by tearing off and masticating the fibres of rotten 

 wood. The bee builds her nest of was, which she produces fi-om 

 her own body. The process of building, and the architectural 

 design, are altogether ditferent. The wasp commences by fastening 

 a short pillar of papier-mache to some root or branch. At the end 

 of this pillar she makes a small cell, cup- shaped and opening down- 

 wards, and after a little while adds two others on each side. An 

 egg is then laid by her in each cell, and she proceeds to make a 

 roof over them of the shape of an umbrella. More cells are then 

 made and more eggs laid. These are hatched. The larva grows 

 rapidly through constant feeding, and the length, of the cell walls 

 has to be increased in proportion to the growth of their occupants. 

 The grub spins a white silken cocoon over the mouth, of its cell, 

 passes through its tranf ormation, and then bites its way out through 

 the cell cover, its head having been downwards all the time. As 

 the family increases, a new set of pillars is formed, and from 

 these is suspended a second tier of cells. A. third, fourth, and 

 fifth follow as they are required, and as the nest is enlarged so is 

 the outside paper cover enlarged in proportion. 



Yery diiferently does the honey-bee construct her cells. The 

 combs built by the wasp lie horizontally one above another, and 

 are made of paper or papier-mache. The combs of the bee are 

 made of wax. This is secreted by the bee from the honey which 

 it has sucked from the nectaries of the flowers, and is not gathered 

 from the flowers themselves, as was formerly supposed before 

 Huber and his successors made more accurate observation. Shake- 

 speare himself fell into the error of mistaking the pollen, which the 

 bees are seen carrying into the hives in the little baskets on their 

 hind legs, for the wax with which they build their combs. In that 

 scene in the play of King Henry the Fourth, where the Prince 

 assumes the crown too hastily, the King likens " The foolish over- 

 careful fathers, who have broke their sleep with thought, their 

 brains with care, their bones with industry," in heaping up gold 

 for their sons, to the bee which tolls from every flower the virtuous 

 sweets, and which, with (as he says) thighs packed with wax and 

 mouth with honey, brings its golden treasure to the hive, and then 

 "is murdered for its pains." Shakespeare was wrong as to the 

 bees carrying in the wax on their thighs. If he had examined a 

 little more closely, he would have found it was pollen, which the 

 bees brought in to make bee-bread for the young bees. But all 

 good modern bee-keepers will, I am sure, agree with him in his 



