iv.or-e frequently, that is, at intervals of about twenty-five 

 minutes. 



Those who have been in India will easily recog-nise that 

 their indif^pen^^able " punkah" is onl}'- a modification of the 

 mode of ventilation, which has been used by the hive-bee 

 ibr countless years. The exertion of fanning- is so great 

 that the bees are forced to support themselves very firmly 

 by their feet and claws. Ventilation, althoug-h most fre- 

 (juent in hot weather, is carried on to s. certain extent, even 

 throug-h the depths of winter, as the object of the bees 

 appears to be not so much to reduce the temperature, as to 

 chang-e the air of the hive. 



Wonderful as this power of ventilation may be, these 

 singular insects possess a still more extraordinary power, 

 that of increasing- heat at will. There are some periods 

 when the temperature of the hive is absolutely required to 

 be much higher than at other times. Just when the infant 

 bee is about to burst from its cell, the heat of the hive is 

 considerably raised, as the young bee when it emerges is 

 peculiarl}^ sensitive to cold, its soft, sleek body perspiring 

 most profusely, and covered with moisture. Immediately 

 upon leaving its cell, it instinctively makes its way to the 

 thickest throng of bees, and eagerly seeks for that warmth 

 which is necessary to bring its feeble body to its proper 

 tone, nor is it until after the lapse of some hours that its 

 body attains sufHcient firmness to render it independent of 

 the external heat derived from the bees in the hive. The 

 necessary amount of caloric is furnished by that portion of 

 the worker-bees called nurse-bees, and the manner in which 

 it is managed is told in the following extract, taken from 

 Mr. Newport's report of his experiments on this subject : — 

 *' These individuals," the narse-bees, ^^ are chiefly young 

 female bees, and at the period of hatching of nymphs they 

 seem to be occupied almost solely in increasing the heat of 

 the nest, and communicating warmth to the cells by crowd- 

 ing- upon them, and clinging to them very closely, during 

 which time they respire very rapidly, and evidently are 

 much excited. These bees begin to crowd upon the cells of 

 the nymphs about ten or twelve hours before the nymph 

 makes its appearance as a perfect bee. The incubntion 

 during this period is very assiduously persevered in by the 



