The Life of the Bee 



the shells were more or less cracked 

 and broken ; and they had considered it 

 simpler, therefore, to bury the entire snail; 

 and had further contrived, in order that 

 circulation in the entrance-hall might not 

 be impeded, a number of galleries exactly 

 proportionate, not to their own girth, 

 but to that of the males, which are 

 almost twice as large as themselves. 

 Does not this instance, and the one that 

 follows, warrant our believing that they 

 would in time discover the cause of the 

 queen's inability to follow them through 

 the trellis ? They have a very nice sense 

 of proportion, and of the space required 

 for the movement of bodies. In the 

 regions where the hideous death's-head 

 sphinx, the acherontia atropos, abounds, 

 they construct little pillars of wax at the 

 entrance of the hive, so restricting the di- 

 mension as to prevent the passage of the 

 nocturnal marauder's enormous abdomen. 

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