ioo THE HONEY-BEE. 



all my pressing would never make the liquid pass 

 through the extremity, although the pressure has 

 sometimes made it almost rend the membranes to 

 give it an opening to escape by." 



A further use of the tongue is for shaping the 

 pliant wax in comb-building ; and it appears to be 

 employed much as a trowel is by a bricklayer, or, 

 perhaps, we should rather say, like a finger by a 

 moulder of plaster of Paris. 



As we have mentioned, the jaws open vertically ; 

 but the mandibles and maxillae work horizontally. 

 They are thus enabled to seize and tightly hold any 

 object they can grasp. The mandibles of the drone 

 and the queen have two notches or teeth. Those 

 of workers are not thus furnished, probably because, 

 for shaping and smoothing the cells, an unbroken 

 edge is much more convenient than a notched one. 

 These organs are, however, very strong, and enable 

 their possessor to grasp enemies, drones or queens ; 

 to nibble hard kinds of food ; to break away pieces 

 of damaged comb ; and to mould wax for building 

 purposes. In the last of these operations they are, 

 doubtless, aided by the shear-like maxillae. 



