APIS. 353 



way through the arched portal. They have been known 

 to kill these enemies within the hive as they could not 

 make them withdraw, but perplexity results from their 

 success ; they are, however, gifted with the sagacity to 

 know that the putridity of these masses will poison with 

 its effluvia the atmosphere of their city which no venti- 

 lation can purify, and they convert that part of their 

 metropolis into a mausoleum, covering the carcases 

 with a coating of propolis, alone or mixed with wax, as 

 before noticed. Those which execute this summary 

 martial law are the sentinels — the armed police of the 

 hive — which guard its entrance and avenues, and patrol 

 its streets and lanes and passages. Concurrently with 

 all these doings, scavengers are heedfully conveying away 

 any particles of dirt or other undesirable superfluity 

 which may have accidentally found its way in. That all 

 these labours produce fatigue and exact rest is proved 

 by the circumstance that many bees are always observed 

 in a state of repose, — perhaps only forty winks during 

 the day just to restore exhausted energy, — for they are 

 soon seen again to resume their toil, this inactivity 

 never being idleness. Whether they proceed with the 

 same kind of employment upon the renewal of their 

 work is not known, nor how long lasts a particular kind 

 of labour, but the change of occupation may be one of 

 frequent occurrence, and it may be presumed that each 

 bee severally and successively undertakes each task, that 

 the faculty for exercising it may not be extinguished. 

 It is very possibly a daily change, which circulates 

 through the entire civic population of w;orkers. 



Although the labours of the bees are divided, we do 

 not find that even the most successful observers, who 

 have had every opportunity, by the nature of the hives 



2 A 



