200 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



But here their instinct is at no loss ; for they kill them, 

 and afterwards embalm them with propolis, so as to 

 prevent any offensive odours from incommoding- them. 

 An unhappy snail, that had travelled up the sides of a 

 glazed hive, and which they could not come at with 

 their stings, they fixed, a monument of their vengeance 

 and dexterity, by laying this substance all around the 

 mouth of its shell \ When they expel tlieir excre- 

 ments, they go apart that they may not defile their 

 companions : and in Avinter, when prevented by ex- 

 treme cold, or the injudicious practice of wholly closing 

 the door of the hive, from going out for this purpose, 

 their bodies sometimes become so swelled from the ac- 

 cumulation of feces in the intestines, that when at last 

 able to get out they can no longer fly, so that falling 

 to the ground in the attempt, they perish with cold, the 

 sacrifice of personal neatness''. When a bee is dis- 

 closed from the pupa and has left its cell, a Avorker 

 comes, and taking out its envelope carries it from the 

 hive ; another removes the exuvias of the larva, and a 

 third any filth or ordure that may remain, or any pieces 

 of wax that may have fallen in when the nascent imago 

 broke from its confinement. But they never attempt 

 to remove the internal lining of silk that covers the 

 walls, spun by the larva previous to its metamorphosis, 

 because, instead of being a nuisance, it renders the cell 

 more solid'. 



Having now described to you the usual employments 

 of my little favourites both within doors and without, 

 I shall next enlarge a little upon their language, me- 



' Itcaum. V. 442. * Bonner On Bees, 102. 



•^ ilrsum. ubisupr. 580-600. 



