122 Insect Architecture. 



a fact conclusive on this subject. " I had," says he, " a late 

 swarm last summer, which, in consequence of the drought, 

 filled only one box with honey. As it was late in the season, 

 and the food collected would not enable the bees to subsist 

 for the winter, I shut up the hive, and gave them half-a-pint 

 of honey every day. They immediately set to work, filled 

 the empty cells, and then constructed new cells enough to 

 fill another box, in which they deposited the remainder of 

 the honey." 



A more interesting proof is thus related by the same 

 gentleman: "In the summer of 1824,1 traced some wild 

 bees, which had been feeding on the flowers in my meadow, 

 to their home in the woods, and which I found in the body 

 of an oak-tree, exactly fifty feet above the ground. Having 

 caused the entrance to the hive to be closed by an expert 

 climber, the limbs were separated in detail, until the trunk 

 alone was left standing. To the upper extremity of this, 

 a tackle-fall was attached so as to connect it with an. 

 adjacent tree, and, a saw being applied below, the naked 

 trunk was cut through. When the immense weight was 

 lowered nearly to the earth, the ropes broke, and the mass 

 fell with a violent crash. The part of the tree which con ; 

 tained the hive, separated by the saw, was conveyed to my 

 garden, and placed in a vertical position. On being released, 

 the bees issued out by thousands, and though alarmed, soon 

 became reconciled to the change of situation. By removing 

 a part of the top of the block the interior of the hive was 

 exposed to view, and the comb itself, nearly six feet in height, 

 was observed to have fallen down two feet below the roof of 

 the cavity. To repair the damage was the first object of the 

 labourers : in doing which, a large part of their store of 

 honey was expended, because it was at too late a season to 

 obtain materials from abroad. In the following February 

 these industrious but unfortunate insects issuing in a confused 

 manner from the hive, fell dead in thousands around its 

 entrance, the victims of a poverty created by their efforts to 

 repair the ruins of their habitation."* 



* American Quarterly Review for June, 1828, p. 382. 



