26 A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



mouth and issue from it in the form of a very narrow 

 riband. 



" They are then presented to the tongue, which im- 

 pregnates them with a frothy liquor like a bouilli. 

 During this operation the tongue assumes all sorts of 

 forms : sometimes it is flattened like a spatula, then 

 like a trowel, which applies itself to the riband of wax ; 

 at other times it resembles a pencil terminating in a 

 point. After having moistened the whole of the riband, 

 the tongue pushes it so as to make it re-enter the 

 mandibles, but in an opposite direction, where it is 

 worked up anew. The liquor mixed with the wax com- 

 municates to it a whiteness and opacity which it had 

 not before ; and the object of this mixture of bouillii 

 which did not escape the observation of Reaumur, is, 

 doubtless, to give it that ductility and tenacity which it 

 possesses in its perfect state. 



" The Foundress Bee, the name which this first beginner 

 of a comb deserves, next applies these prepared parcels 

 of wax against the vault of the hive, disposing them with 

 the point of her mandibles in the direction which she 

 wishes them to take ; and she continues these manoeuvres 

 until she has employed the whole lamina that she had 

 separated from her body, when she takes a second 

 proceeding in the same manner. She gives herself no 

 care to compress the molecules of wax which she has 

 heaped together ; she is satisfied if they adhere to each 

 other. At length she leaves her work and is lost in 

 the crowd of her companions. Another succeeds and 

 resumes the employment ; then a third ; all follow the 

 same plan of placing their little masses ; and if any, by 

 chance, gives them a contrary direction, another coming 

 removes them to their proper place. The result of all 

 these operations is a mass or little wall of wax, with 



