THE COMB-BUILDERS 201 
by a swarm will have a yellow, moist, spongy 
appearance, with thick, irregular walls, and are 
obviously little more than temporary vats to hold 
the incoming nectar until the proper honey-cells 
can be constructed. This emergency-comb is 
specially interesting, as affording one more instance 
of the worker-bee’s ever-ready resource in the 
presence of difficulties. In the ordinary way the 
mason-bee hangs quietly in the cluster until her’ 
wax-secreting organs have done their work, and 
the six little oblong scales of brittle material are 
ready for manipulation. These protrude from 
under the hard plates of her abdomen, three on 
each side, looking much like half-posted letters. 
At one of the knee-joints of her hind-leg she has 
a peculiar implement, of which there is not the 
slightest trace in the queen-bee. This is like a 
pair of nippers, but instead of two converging 
points, it is furnished on one side with a row of 
sharp, stiff bristles, and on the other with a shallow 
spoon. With this special tool the worker-bee grips 
the wax-scale, and draws it out of its pocket. It 
is then transferred to her jaws, and she hurries off 
with it to the comb-building. Arrived at an un- 
finished cell, she sets to work to chew up the raw 
wax into a paste, incorporating it with her saliva, 
and materially increasing its bulk. The resulting 
soft, ductile matter is then applied to the work, and 
moulded into its needed shape. In this way, with 
hundreds of workers going and coming, the delicate 
