222 SPECIAL INSTINCTS. Cuap. VII. 



on an average of twelve measurements made near tlie border 

 of tlic comb, Tp^ of an inch in thickness ; whereas the basal 

 rhomboidal plates are thicker nearly in the proportion of three 

 to two, having a mean tliickness, from twenty-one measure 

 mcnts, of -rAs of an inch, liy the above singular maimer of 

 building, strength is continually given to the coml), with the 

 utmost ultimate economy of wax. 



It seems at first to add to the difficulty of understanding 

 how the cells are made, that a multitude of bees all work to- 

 gether ; one bee after Avorking a sliort time at one cell going 

 to another, so that, as Hubcr has stated, a score of individuals 

 work even at the commencement of the first cell. I was able 

 practicall}'" to show this fact, by covering the edges of tlie hex- 

 agonal walls of a single cell, or the extreme margin of the cir- 

 cumferential rim of a growing comb, with an extremely thin 

 layer of melted vermilion wax ; and I invariably found that the 

 color was most delicately difiused by tlie bees — as delicately 

 as a painter could have done with his brush — by atoms of the 

 colored wax having been taken from the spot on which it had 

 been placed, and Avorked into the growing edges of the cells 

 all round. The Avork of construction seems to be a sort of 

 balance struck between many bees, all instinctively standing 

 at the same relative distance from each other, all trying to 

 SAveep equal spheres, and tlien building up, or leaving un- 

 gnaAved, the planes of intersection betAveen these spheres. It 

 was really curious to note in cases of difficulty, as Avhen two 

 pieces of comb met at an angle, hoAV often the bees Avould pull 

 down and rebuild in different ways the same cell, sometimes 

 recurring to a shaj^e which they had at first rejected. 



When bees haA'e a place on Avhich they can starid in their 

 proper positions for Avorking — for instance, on a slip of Avood, 

 placed directly under the middle of a comb groAving doAvnAvard 

 so that the comb has to be built OA'er one face of the slip — in 

 this case the bees can lay the foundations of one Avail of a ncAV 

 hexagon, in its strictly proper place, projecting beyond the 

 other com])leted cells. It suffices that the bees should be en- 

 al)led to stand at their proper relative distances from each 

 other and from the A\-alls of the last completed cells, and then, 

 by striking imaginary spheres, they can build up a Avail inter- 

 mediate betAveen tAvo adjoining s])heres ; but, as far as I have 

 seen, they ncAxr gnaw aA\-ay and finish off the angles of a cell 

 till a large part both of that cell and of the adjoining cells has 

 been built. This capacity in bees of laying doAvn under ccr- 



