HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 491 



makers return and add to the mass, augmenting its ex- 

 tent every way, the nurse-bees again continuing their 

 operations. After having worked the bottoms of the 

 cells of the first row into their proper forms, they polish 

 them and give them their finish, while others begin the 

 outline of a new series. 



The cells themselves, or prisms which result from the 

 re-union and meeting of the sides, are next constructed. 

 These are engrafted on the borders of the cavities hol- 

 lowed in the mass. The bees begin them by making 

 the contour of the bottoms, which at first is unequal, of 

 equal height : thus all the margins of the cells offer an 

 uniformly level surface from their first origin, and until 

 they have acquired their proper length. The sides are 

 heightened in an order analogous to that which the in- 

 sects follow in finishing the bottoms of the cells ; and the 

 length of these tubes is so perfectly proportioned that 

 there is no observable inequality between them. It is 

 to be remarked, that though the general form of the 

 cells is hexagonal, that of those first begun is pentagonal, 

 the side next the top^f the hive, and by which the comb 

 is attached, being much broader than the rest ; whence 

 the comb is more strongly united to the hive than if these 

 cells were of the ordinary shape. It of course follows 

 that the base of these cells, instead -of being formed like, 

 those of the hexagonal cells of three rhomboids, consists 

 of one rhomboid and two trapeziums. 



The form of a new comb is lenticular, its thickness 

 always diminishing towards the edges. This gradation 

 is constantly observable while it keeps enlarging in cir- 

 cumference ; but as soon as the bees get sufficient space 

 to lengthen it, it begins to lose this form and to assume 



