PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 187 



finishing the combs, as I related in ray letter on habi- 

 tations '*; but also in stopping- every chink or orifics 

 by which cold, wet, or any enemy can enter. They 

 cover likewise with it the sticks which support the 

 combs, and often spread it over a considerable portion 

 of the interior of the hive. Like the pellets of pollen, 

 it is carried on the posterior tibijE, but the masses are 

 lenticular''. 



Mr. Knight mentions an instance of bees using an 

 artificial kind of propolis. He had caused the decor- 

 ticated part of some tree to be covered with a cement 

 composed of bees-wax and turpentine : finding this to 

 their purpose, they attacked it, detaching- it from the 

 tree by their mandibles, and then, as usual, passing it 

 from the first leg to the second, and so to the third. 

 When one bee had thus collected its load, another 

 often came behind and despoiled it of all it had col- 

 lected ; a second and third load were frequently lost in 

 the same manner; and yet the patient animal pursued 

 its labours without showing any signs of anger *=. 



Bees in their excursions do not confine them.seives to 

 the spot immediately contiguous to their dwelling, but, 

 when led by the scent of honey, will go a mile from it. 

 Huber even assigns to them a radius of half a league 

 round their hive for their ordinary excursions ; yet from 

 this distance they will discover honey with as much 

 certainty as if it was within their sight. To prove 

 that it is by their scent that bees find it out, he put 

 some behind a window-shutter, in a place where it could 

 not be seen, leaving the shutter just open enough for 



• Vol. I. 2d Ed. 500. •" Reaura. ubi svpr. 437 — 



"^ riiilos. Trans. I SOT, 242. 



