BEES. 'Jo 



themselves from catching- cold or rheumatism through 

 draughts, by stopping up ever}^ crevice into their hive, no* 

 matter how minute, so that one only opening shall exist,, 

 the proper legitimate entrance. M. Reaumur once thought 

 proper to fasten the glass of a hive with pasted paper, in a 

 careless manner, before putting in a swarm. Just as he had 

 anticipated, the bees found out his unworkmanlike conduct, 

 and contemptuously tearing away with their teeth the 

 trumpery defence he had put, they made all firm and taut, 

 as the sailors say, with good solid propolis. Once an un- 

 lucky shell-less slug crept into a hive. After having settled 

 him with their stings, the bees varnished him carefully over 

 with this same propolis, to prevent his becoming unpleasant 

 in the dog-days. Another, confiding apparently in hig 

 impenetrable shell, an impudent, idle, yet honey-loving 

 snail,* thinking to plunder their stores, appeared on the 

 threshold of their dormitory — to learn, alas! most un- 

 expectedly, a new use for this wonderful composition ; the 

 bees actually glued him down to the ground, at the edges 

 of his armour, as firm and immoveable as a rock, before he 

 had time even to explain that he was but looking in, and 

 intended to go back again instantly. 



Propolis has a remarkably rapid arying property. Although 

 when first procured from the tree it is plastic, soft, and can 

 be easily removed in threads like birdlime, yet, in a very 

 short time after it has been taken from the secreting sur- 

 face of its native tree, it becomes hard and comparatively 

 brittle. So rapid is this change, that the bees who are 

 engaged in collecting propolis are forced to gather it about 

 noon-day, when the sun is at its height, as the heat of the 

 sun softens it for the time ; they are furthermore obliged to 

 work with great rapidity, and hurry homewards directly 

 they have taken a cargo, as, even in the short space of time 

 which their flight homeward consumes, the propolis often 

 becomes so hard, that they can scarcely detach it from their 

 hair-covered baskets. 



* While decoying moths at night by means of a fragrant and inr 

 toxicating mixture of beer, sugar, and rum, spread upon the trees, I 

 seldom found one of the trees without one or more large gray slugs 

 already busily devouring the sweet deception, and several more de- 

 scending from the branches, eager to join in the feast. 



