112 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



62 



And I will pass over too — in my desire that this essay shall 

 not become too didactic — the remarkable instinct that induces 

 the bees at times to thin and demolish the extremity of their 

 combs when these are to be enlarged or lengthened ; though it 

 must be admitted that in this case the " blind building instinct " 

 fails signally to account for their demolishing in order that 

 they may rebuild, or undoing what has been done that it 

 may be done afresh, and this time with more regularity. I 

 will content myself also with a mere reference to the remark- 

 able experiment that enables us, with the aid of a piece of 

 glass, to compel the bees to start their combs at a right angle ; 

 when they most ingeniously contrive that the enlarged cells 

 on the convex side shall coincide with the reduced cells on 

 the concave side of the comb. 



But before finally quitting this subject let us pause, though 

 it be but for an instant, to consider the mysterious fashion 

 in which they manage to act in concert and combine their 

 labour when simultaneously carving two opposite sides of a 

 comb, and unable therefore to see each other. Take a finished 

 comb to the light, fix your eyes on the diaphanous wax, you 

 will see, most clearly designed, an entire network of sharply 

 cut prisms, a whole system of concordances so infallible that 

 one might almost believe them to be stamped on steel. 



I wonder whether those who never have seen the interior 

 of a hive can form an adequate conception of the arrangement 

 and aspect of the combs. Let them imagine — we will take 

 a peasant's hive, where the bee is left entirely to its own 



