The Life of the Bee 



at work that impels the bees at a given 

 moment to increase the size of their 

 dwelhngs. Three reasons may dictate 

 this step : an extraordinary harvest may 

 call for larger receptacles, the workers 

 may consider the population to be suffi- 

 ciently numerous, or it may have become 

 necessary that males should be born. Nor 

 can we in such cases refrain from wonder- 

 ing at the ingenious economy, the unerr- 

 ing, harmonious conviction, with which the 

 bees will pass from the small to the large, 

 from the large to the small ; from perfect 

 symmetry to, where unavoidable, its very 

 reverse, returning to ideal regularity so 

 soon as the laws of a live geometry will 

 allow; and all the time not losing a cell, 

 not suffering a single one of their numer- 

 ous structures to be sacrificed, to be ridic- 

 ulous, uncertain, or barbarous, or any 

 section thereof to become unfit for use. 

 But I fear that I have already wandered 



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