THE HONEY-BEE. Ill 



branch of their natural history are calculated to excite 

 the deepest interest, and we regret that our limits 

 oblige us to forego the pleasure of reciting them, and 

 to refer our readers to the original work. We cannot, 

 nowever, omit one extract from his observations, 

 which strikingly proves that though the bees, when 

 left to themselves, regulate their operations with per- 

 fect uniformity, they are yet capable of modifying 

 them in particular circumstances. "Having seen 

 bees," says he, " work both upwards and downwards, 

 we wished to investigate whether we could compel 

 them to construct their combs in any other direction. 

 We tried to confound them with a hive glazed above 

 and below, so that they had no place of support but 

 the upright sides of their dwelling; lodging themselves 

 in the upper angle, they built their combs perpendi- 

 cular to one of these sides, and as regularly asfhose 

 which they usually build under a horizontal surface. 

 I put them to a still greater trial : As they now testified 

 their inclination to carry their combs in the shortest 

 way to the opposite side of the hive, for they prefer 

 uniting them to wood, or a surface rougher than glass, 

 I covered it with a pane of this last mentioned 

 material. Whenever this smooth and slippery sub- 

 stance was interposed between them and the wood, 

 they departed from the straight line hitherto followed 

 and bent the structure of their comb at a right angle 

 to what was already made, so that the prolongation 

 of the extremity might reach another side of the hive 

 which had been left free. Varying this experiment 

 after several fashions, I saw the bees constantly change 



