THK BEE NATION. 253 



of the cells must necessarily have been altered thereby, and 

 the arrangement of their work at the angle must have been 

 quite different from usual. They made the cells of the 

 convex side so much broader than those of the concave that 

 they had a diameter two or three times as great, and yet 

 they managed to join them properly with the others. They 

 also did not wait to bend the comb until they came to the 

 glass itself, but recognised the difficulty beforehand. 



Huber further says that the bees can build their hex- 

 agonal cells on glass or wood instead of on a floor of wax, the 

 floors of the cells being then necessarily flat instead of 

 pyramidal. These cells with flat floors are less regular than 

 the ordinary ones. Many of the cell edges are not angular, 

 and the dimensions are often not exact. Notwithstanding, 

 a more or less definite hexagonal shape can be recognised, 

 even in those which depart most from the regular form. 



The lower free end of a completed comb is also always 

 finished off with a thicker border of wax with irregular cell- 

 commencements. If the bees want to build on to this they 

 first scrape off the rim of wax arid the irregular cells, and 

 then begin to carry the comb further. Pieces of comb 

 hung like so-called screens are also ingeniously used by the 

 bees for further building, but only after they have removed 

 the injured rows of cells of the divided walls. But if such 

 pieces are soiled, or seem to them to be otherwise unsuitable, 

 they are torn down and a quite new comb is built. In the 

 same way they make no difficulty, when they want to breed 

 drones, about pulling down the working - bees' cells and 

 making drones' cells instead. Thus we find everywhere a 

 perfectly clear understanding of the condition of affairs, arid 

 an equally clear and definite adaptation of action according 

 to circumstances. 



These and many other observations show, as Huber says, 

 " how ductile is the instinct of bees, arid how readily it 

 adapts itself to the place, the circumstance, and the needs of 

 the community." 



" Man must really be more stupid than a beast," says E. 

 Menault (" L'Intelligence des Animaux," Paris, 1872) after 

 describing similar proceedings of bees, especially as regards 

 economy of space, " if he does not recognise in this conduct 

 calculation, comparison, reflection, and reason." 



Bees, like ants and like men, are ever subject to error, and 



