APIS MELLIFICA. 



fixed place, and wherever the stand is made, they all forthwith 

 repair to it. In the wild state, the cavity of an old tree is 

 commonly chosen, and this with a seeming prudence and 

 foresight which cannot be sufficiently admired. The first 

 care of the bees is to cleanse it from dust and rubbish, and to 

 gnaw off with their mandibles any asperities or projections 

 which might interfere with the future construction of the 

 comb. In the state of domestication in which the hive-bee 

 is usually preserved, the practice of the above instinctive ac- 

 tions is rendered unnecessary by the reception of the swarms 

 into neat artificial hives. Yet this modification of their habits, 

 and many other interferences to which they are subject, have 

 had no effect in inducing any varieties in the organization of 

 the bee, or any change in those instinctive actions which the 

 care of man has not rendered indispensable. The considera- 

 tion of this curious exception to the ordinary consequences of 

 domestication and of the conditions on which the circum- 

 scribed limits of variation in the bee depend, would lead us 

 far beyond the extent allotted to the present subject ; but it is 

 an inquiry full of interest in relation to the recondite laws 

 which govern the variation of animals from their specific 

 standard. 



In the wild state, the young colony at first return occasion- 

 ally to the parent establishment for supplies of provision, and 

 the domesticated bees always fill their crops with honey before 

 they leave the hive. The wax is a peculiar secretion from 

 the working bee, and having the materials therefore within 

 themselves, they immediately begin to form the comb. 



Before describing the many-chambered nursery and store- 

 house which the bees prepare, a few words are necessary re- 

 garding the material of which it is constructed. 



The formation of the wax is a very singular and complex 

 operation. Huber says : " The wax-makers having taken their 

 due portion of honey or sugar, from either of which wax can 

 be elaborated, suspend themselves to each other, the claws of 

 the forelegs of the lowermost being attached to those of the 

 hind pair of the uppermost, and form themselves into a clus- 

 ter, the exterior layer of which looks like a kind of curtain. 

 This cluster consists of a series of festoons, or garlands 

 which cross each other in all directions, and in which most of 

 the bees turn their back upon the observer ; the curtain has no 

 other motion than what it receives from the inferior layers, 



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