COMMON HUMBLE-BEE. 251 



males, and the workers, all perish before the cold 

 season arrives. 



M. P. Huber, to whom we are indebted for many 

 of the foregoing facts, relates a very interesting 

 anecdote of the instinctive resourses of this insect. 

 While carrying on an experiment respecting the 

 elaboration of wax, he placed a piece of brood-comb 

 with a dozen bees under a bell glass, taking away 

 from them every particle of wax, and furnishing 

 them with farina only. The comb, from the irregu- 

 larity of its shape, did not rest steadily on the table; 

 and when the bees mounted on it, to impart the 

 necessary warmth to the brood, its rocking motion 

 seemed to annoy them extremely. They had no 

 wax wherewith to remedy the evil ; but their in- 

 stinct, and their intense affection for their young 

 supplied an ingenious expedient. A few of them 

 mounted the comb, and letting their bodies down 

 towards its lower edge, suspended themselves from 

 it, head downwards, by the hooks of their hinder 

 feet ; and with those of the second pair of legs which 

 are very long, laid hold on the table, and thus steadied 

 the mass by the mere force of muscular strength. 

 (PI. VIII. fig. 4.) In this posture they remained 

 till relieved by others, the mother herself lending 

 her aid; and they continued the painful task for 

 two or three days. In the mean time, some honey 

 with which they had at length been supplied, fur- 

 nished them with the means of producing wax, with 

 which they immediately set about constructing pillars, 

 having their bases resting on the table, and support- 



