486 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



selves ill crowds, some upon the edges of the fallen 

 comb, others between its sides and those of the adjoin- 

 ing combs ; and there securely fixed it, by constructing- 

 several ties of different shapes between it and the glass 

 of the hive ; some were pillars, others buttresses, and 

 others beams artfully disposed and adapted to the lo- 

 calities of the surfaces joined. Nor did they content 

 themselves with repairing the accidents which their 

 masonry had experienced ; they provided against those 

 which might happen, and appeared to profit by the 

 warning given by the fall of one of the combs toconso- 

 lidate the others and prevent a second accident of the 

 same nature. These last had not been displaced, and 

 appeared solidly attached by their base ; whence Ru- 

 ber was not a little surprised to see the bees strengthen 

 their principal points of connexion by making them 

 much thicker than before with old wax, and forming 

 numerous ties and braces to unite them more closely 

 to each other and to the walls of their habitation. — 

 What was still more extraordinary, all this happened 

 in the middle of January, at a period when the bees 

 ordinarily cluster at the top of the hive, and do not 

 engage in labours of this kind^. 



You will admit, I think, that these proofs of the re- 

 sources of the architectural instinct of bees are truly 

 admirable. If, in the case of the substitution of mitys 

 for the first range of waxen cells, this procedure in- 

 variablj/ took place in everi/ bee-hive at a fixed period 

 —when, for example, the combs are two-thirds filled 

 with honey — it would be less surprising : but there is 

 nothing of this invariable character about it. It does 



'Iluber, ii. 280. 



