292 APPENDIX. 



proper food, they die in the course of a few days. Now, 

 if the pollen were really nourishment for bees, they ought 

 to be able to support life on it, mixed with water. 



Bees never build honeycomb unless they have a queen, 

 or are provided with young out of which they can educate 

 a queen. But if bees be shut up in a hive without a 

 queen, and fed with honey, we can perceive in forty-eight 

 hours that they have laminae of wax on their scales, and 

 that some have even separated. The building of cells is, 

 therefore, voluntary, and dependent on certain conditions, 

 but the oozing out of wax is involuntary. 



One might suppose, that a large proportion of these 

 laminae must be lost, since the bees may allow them to 

 fall off, out of the hive as well as in it ; but the Creator 

 has wisely provided against such a loss. If we give to 

 bees engaged in building cells honey in a flat dish, and 

 cover the dish with perforated paper, that the bees may 

 not be entangled in the honey, we shall find, after a day, 

 that the honey has disappeared, and that a large number 

 of laminae are lying on the paper. It would appear as if 

 the bees which have carried off the honey, had let fall the 

 scales ; but it is not so. For, if above the paper we lay 

 two small rods, and on these a board, overhanging the 

 dish on every side, so that the bees can creep under the 

 board and obtain the honey, we shall find next day the 

 honey gone, but no lamina on the paper ; while laminae 

 will be found in abundance on the board above. The 

 bees, therefore, which go for and bring the honey, do 

 not let fall the laminae of wax, but only those bees which 

 remain hanging to the top of the hive. Repeated experi- 

 ments of this kind, have convinced me that the bees, as 



