INSTINCTS OP BEES. 321 



While all in vain concurrent numbers strive, 

 To heave the slime-girt giant from the hive, 

 Sure not alone by force instinctive sway'd, 

 But blest with reason's soul-directing aid, 

 Alike in man or bee, they haste to pour, 

 Thick hardening as it falls, the flaky shower ; 

 Embalm'd in shroud of glue the mummy lies, 

 No worms invade, no foul miasmas rise." EVANS. 



In these two cases, who can withhold his admi- 

 ration of the ingenuity and judgement of the bees ? 

 In the fast case, a troublesome creature gained 

 admission into the hive, which, from its unwieldi- 

 ness, they could not remove, and which, from the 

 impenetrability of its shell, they could not de- 

 stroy : here then their only resource was to deprive 

 it of loco-motion, and to obviate putrefaction; 

 both which objects they accomplished most skil- 

 fully and securely, and, as is usual with these 

 sagacious creatures, at the least possible expense 

 of labour and materials. They applied their 

 cement, where alone it was required, namely, 

 round the verge of the shell. In the latter case, 

 to obviate the evil of putrescence, by the total 

 exclusion of air, they were obliged to be more 

 lavish in the use of their embalming material, and 

 to form with it so complete an incrustation or 

 case over the " slime-girt giant," as to guard them 

 from the consequences which the atmosphere in- 

 variably produces upon all animal substances, 

 that are exposed to its action after life has become 

 p 5 



