320 INSTINCTS OF BEES. 



moist air or its own spume had loosened the ad- 

 hesion. The bees having discovered the snail, 

 immediately surrounded it, and formed a border 

 of propolis round the verge of its shell, which 

 was, at last, so securely fixed to the glass, as to 

 become immoveable, either by the moisture of the 

 air from without, or by the snail's secretion from 

 within. 



" Nor aught avails that in his torpid veins, 

 Year after year, life's loitering spark remains* : 

 For ever clos'd the impenetrable door, 

 He sinks on death's cold arm to rise no more." 



EVANS. 



Maraldi has related a somewhat similar in- 

 stance. A houseless snail or slug, as it is called, 

 had entered one of his hives : the bees, as soon as 

 they observed it, pierced it with their stings, till 

 it expired beneath their repeated strokes ; after 

 which, being unable to dislodge it, they covered 

 it all over with propolis. 



" For, soon in fearless ire, their wonder lost, 

 Spring fiercely from the comb th' indignant host, 

 Lay the pierc'd monster breathless on the ground, 

 And clap, in joy, their victor pinions round. 



* In the Annual Register for 1775 some very extraordinary 

 instances are related of the protraction of life in snails. After 

 they had lain in a cabinet above fifteen years, immersing 

 them in water caused them to revive and crawl out of their 

 shells. 



