PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 183 



with the intermediate pair pushes off the pellets. When 

 this is done, she, or another bee if she is too much 

 fatigued with her day's labour, enters the cell with her 

 head first, and remains there some time: she is engaged 

 in diluting the pellets, kneading them, and packing 

 them close; and so they proceed till the cell is filled*. 

 A large portion of the cells of some combs are filled 

 with this bread, which one while is found in insulated 

 cells, at another in cells amongst those that are filled 

 with honey or brood. — Thus it is everywhere at hand 

 for use. , 



You have seen how the bees collect and employ two 

 of the materials that I mentioned ; I must now advert to 

 the third — the Propolis. Huber was a long time un- 

 certain from whence the bees procured this gummy re- 

 sin ; but it at last occurred to him to plant some cuttings 

 of a species of poplar (before their leaves were deve- 

 loped, when their leaf-buds were swelling, and besmear- 

 ed and filled with a viscid juice,) in some pots, which 

 he placed in the way of the bees that went from his 

 hives. Almost immediately a bee alighted upon a twig, 

 and soon with its mandibles opened a bud, and drew 

 from it a thread of the viscid matter which it contained ; 

 with one of its second pair of legs it took it from the 

 mouth, and placed it in the basket : thus it proceeded 

 till it had given them both their load^. I have myself 

 seen bees very busy collecting it from the Tacamahaca 

 {Populus balsamifera). But this is an old discovery, 

 confirmed by recent observation; for MoufFet tells us 



" Compare Reauin. 420, and Hubtr, ii. 24, with Wiklinaii, 40. 

 '' Iliibcr, ii. 260. 



