HIVE-BEES. 



123 



that bees are not provided with instruments corre- 

 sponding to the angles of their cells; for there is no 

 more resemblance between these and the form of 

 their mandibles, than between the chisel of the 

 sculptor and the work which he produces. The 

 head, he thinks, does not furnish any better explana- 

 tion. He admits that the antennae are very flexible, 

 so as to enable the insects to follow the outline of 

 every object; but concludes that neither their struc- 

 ture, nor that of the limbs and mandibles, are ade- 

 quate to explain the form of the cells, though all 

 these are employed in the operations of building, — 

 the effect, according to him, depending entirely on 

 the object which the insect proposes. 



We shall now follow M. Huber in the experiments 

 which he contrived, in order to observe the opera- 

 tions of the bees subsequent to their laying a founda- 

 tion for the first cell ; and we shall again quote from 

 his own narrative: — 



" It appeared to me," he says, " that the only 

 method of isolating the architects, and bringing them 

 individually into view, would be to induce them to 

 change the direction of their operations, and work 

 upwards. 



" I had a box made twelve inches square and nine 

 deep, with a moveable glass lid. Combs full of 

 brood, honey, and pollen, were next selected from 

 one of my leaf hives, as containing what might in- 

 terest the bees, and being cut into pieces a foot long, 

 and four inches deep, they were arranged vertically 

 at the bottom of the box, at the same intervals as 

 the insects themselves usually leave between them. 

 A small slip of wooden lath covered the upper edge 

 of each. It was not probable that the bees would 

 attempt to found new combs on the glass roof of the 

 box, because its smoothness precluded the swarm 

 from adhering to it; therefore, if disposed to build, 



