578 . INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



the combs are new and only partially filled with hoaey, the first range of 

 cells, originally established as the base and the guide for the pyramidal 

 bottoms of the subsequent ones, serves as a sufllcient support for them ; 

 but when they contain a store of several pounds, the bees seem to foresee 

 the danger of such a weight proving too heavy for the thin waxen walls 

 by which the combs are suspended, and providently hasten to substi- 

 tute for them thicker walls, and pillars of a more compact and viscid 

 material. 



But their foresight does not stop here. When they have sufficient 

 wax, they make their combs of such a breadth as to extend to the sides 

 of the hive, to which they cement them by constructions appKjaching 

 more or less to the shape of cells. But when a scarcity of wax happens 

 before they have been able to give to their combs the requisite diameter, 

 a large vacant space is left between the edges of these combs, which are 

 only fixed by their upper part, and the sides of the hive ; and they 

 might be pulled down by the weight of the honey, did not the bees ensure 

 their stability by introducing large irregular masses of wax between their 

 edges and the sides of the hive. A striking instance of this art of secur- 

 ing their magazines occurred to Huber. A comb, not having been origi- 

 nally well fastened to the top of his glass hive, fell down during the 

 winter amongst the other combs, preserving, however, its parallelism with 

 them. The bees could not fill up the space between its upper edge and 

 the top of the hive, because they never construct combs of old wax, and 

 they had not then an opportunity of procuring new : at a more favorable 

 season they would not have hesitated to build a new comb upon the old 

 one ; but it being inexpedient at that period to expend their provision of 

 honey in the elaboration of wax, they provided for the stability of the 

 fallen comb by another process. They furnished themselves with wax 

 from the other combs, by gnawing away the rims of the cells more elon- 

 gated than the rest, and then betook themselves in crowds, some upon 

 the edges of the fallen comb, others between its sides and those of the 

 adjoining combs ; and there securely fixed it, by constructing several ties 

 of different shapes between it and tbe glass of the hive: some were pillars, 

 others buttresses, and others beams artfully disposed and adapted to the 

 localities of the surfaces joined. Nor did they content themselves with 

 repairing the accidents which their masonry had experienced ; they pro- 

 vided against those which niiglit happen, and appeared to profit by the 

 warning given by the fall of one of the combs to consolidate the others, 

 and prevent a second accident of the same nature. These last had not 

 been displaced, and appeared solidly attached by their base ; whence 

 Huber was not a little surprised to see the bees strengthen their principal 

 points of connection by making them much thicker than before with old 

 wax, and forming numerous ties and braces to unite them more closely to 

 each other and to the walls of their habitation. What was still more 

 extraordinary, all this happened in the middle of January, at a period when 

 the bees ordinarily cluster at the top of the hive, and do not engage in 

 labors of this kind.^ 



You will admit, I think, that those proofs of the resources of the archi- 

 tectural instinct of bees are truly admirable. If, in the case of the 



» Huber, ii. 280. 



