HONEY-BEE. 187 



entering and issuing of the bees. To prevent this disaster, 

 they make a kind of ring round the margin of each cell, and 

 this ring is three or four times as thick as the walls. 



It is difficult to perceive, even with the assistance of glass 

 hives, the manner in which bees operate when construct- 

 ing their cells. They are so eager to afford mutual assist- 

 ance, and, for this purpose, so many of them crowd together, 

 and are perpetually succeeding each other, that their individ- 

 ual operations can seldom be distinctly observed. It has, 

 however, been plainly discovered, that their two teeth are the 

 only instruments they*mploy in modelling and polishing the 

 wax. With a little patience and attention, we perceive cells 

 just begun ; we likewise remark the quickness with which a 

 bee moves its teeth against a small portion of the cell. This 

 portion the animal, by repeated strokes on each side, smooths, 

 renders compact, and reduces to a proper thinness of consist- 

 ence. While some of the hive are lengthening their hexagonal 

 tubes, others are laying the foundations of new ones. In 

 certain circumstances, when extremely hurried, they do not 

 complete their new cells, but leave them imperfect till they 

 have begun a number sufficient for their present exigencies. 

 When a bee puts its head a little way into a cell, we easily 

 perceive it scraping the walls with the points of its teeth, in 

 order to detatch such useless and irregular fragments as may 

 have been left in the work. Of these fragments the bee 

 forms a ball about the size of a pin-head, comes out of the 

 cell, and carries the wax to another part of the work where it 

 is needed. It no sooner leaves the cell, than it is succeeded 

 by another bee, which performs the same office ; and in this 

 manner the work is successively carried on till the cell is 

 completely polished. 



The cells of bees are designed for different purposes. 

 Some of them are employed for the accumulation and pres- 

 ervation of honey. In others, the female deposits her eggs, 

 and from these eggs worms are hatched, which remain in the 

 cells till their final transformation into flies. The drones, or 

 males, are larger than the common, or working bees ; and 

 the queen, or mother of the hive, is much larger than either. 

 A cell destined for the lodgment of a male or female worm, 

 must, therefore, be considerably larger than the cells of the 

 smaller working bees. The number of cells destined for the 

 reception of the working bees far exceeds those in which the 

 males are lodged. The honey-cells are always made deeper 

 and more capacious than the others. When the honey eol 



