SAGACITY OF BEES. 856 ■ 



other, "preventing any nearer- approach. (This may 

 be illustrated by turning the hive a few inches from 

 the perpendicular after being filled with combs in 

 warm weather.) 



MAKING PASSAGES TO EVERY PART OF THEIR COMBS. 



Should nearly all the combs in the hive become de- 

 tached from any cause, and lie on the bottom in one 

 " grand smash of ruin,"_their first steps are, as just de- 

 scribed, pillars from one to the other to keep them as 

 they are. In a few days, in warm weather, they will 

 have made passages by biting away combs where they 

 are in contact, throughout every part of the mass ; 

 little columns of wax below, supporting the combs 

 above, — irregular, to be sure, but as well as circum- 

 stances admit. Not a single piece can be removed 

 without breaking it from the others, and the whole 

 will be firmly cemented together. A piece of comb 

 filled with honey, and sealed up, may be put in a glass 

 box with the ends of these cells so sealed, touching 

 the glass. The principle of allowing no part of their 

 tenement to be in a situation inaccessible, is soon man- 

 ifested. They immediately bite off the ends of the 

 cells, remove the honey that is in the way, and make 

 a passage next to the glass, leaving a few bars from it 

 to the comb, to steady and keep it in its position. A 

 single sheet of comb lying flat on the bottom-board of 

 a populous swarm is cut away .under side, for a pas- 

 sage in every direction, numerous little pillars of wax 

 being left for its support. How any person in the 

 habit of watching their proceedings, with any degree 



