348 ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. 



Spring to each falling flake, and bear along 

 Their glossy burdens to the builder throng." 



EVANS. 



The architect-in-chief, who lays, as it were, the 

 first stone of this and each successive edifice, 

 determines the relative position of the combs, and 

 their distances from each other : these foundations 

 serve as guides for the ulterior labours of the 

 wax -working bees, and of those which sculpture 

 the cells, giving them the advantage of the mar- 

 gin and angles already formed. 



The expedients resorted to by that ingenious 

 naturalist, HUBER, unfolded the whole process. 

 He saw each bee extract with its hind feet one 

 of the plates of wax from under the scales where 

 they were lodged, and carrying it to the mouth, 

 in a vertical position, turn it round ; so that every 

 part of its border was made to pass, in succession, 

 under the cutting edge of the jaws : it was thus 

 soon divided into very small fragments ; and a 

 frothy liquor was poured upon it from the tongue, 

 so as to form a perfectly plastic mass. This 

 liquor gave the wax a whiteness and opacity 

 which it did not possess originally, and at the 

 same time rendered it tenacious and ductile. 

 The issuing of this masticated mass from the 

 mouth was, no doubt, what misled Reaumur, and 

 caused him to regard wax as nothing more than 

 digested pollen. 



The mass of wax, prepared by the assistants, 



