42 SOCIAL HABITATIONS. 
over the cell, and remains there until it has become a per- 
fect insect. It then bites its way out, and after a day or so 
devoted to hardening and strengthening its limbs, it leaves 
the hive and joins in the labours of the community. 
No sooner is the Bee fairly out of its waxen nursery, 
than the workers clear out the cell, and prepare it for the 
reception of honey. As soon as the cell is filled, the Bees 
close up the entrance with a waxen door, which is air- 
tight, and serves to preserve the honey in proper condition. 
Those who wish to eat honey in its pure state should always 
purchase it in the comb. If it be stored in pots, however 
well they may be sealed, it always crystallises, and in that 
state is injurious to digestion. Moreover, it is so exten- 
sively adulterated, that a pot of really pure honey is not 
readily obtained. 
Besides the honey, “ Bee-bread ” is placed in the cells, 
This is a compound of honey and the pollen of flowers, 
and is chiefly used as food for the young grubs. We may 
often see the Bees hastening home with a load of yellow 
pollen on each of the hinder pair of legs, and this pollen 
is destined to be made into Bee-bread. 
Such, then, is a brief outline of the wonderful social 
habitation which is made by the Hive Bee. 
We now come to an insect which is as well known by 
name as the Bee, though not so familiar to our eyes, This 
is the common Hornet, which is tolerably plentiful in 
many parts of England, but seems to be almost absent from 
others. 
The nest of the Hornet is much like that of the wasp, 
except that it is proportionately larger, and is almost in- 
variably built in hollow trees, deserted outhouses, and places 
of a similar description. Whenever the Hornet takes up 
its residence in an inhabited house, as is sometimes the 
