'Oo ^ . -JING OF , ..-«. 



kind at all. x\notlici j(iia, ,\-a after him sooner or later, and 

 gives the wax a pinch, or a little scraping or burnishing -n-ith his 

 piilished mandibles, then another, and so on, and the sum total 

 of all these manoeuvres is that the comb seems almost to grow 

 out of nothing; yet no bee ever makes a cell himself, and no 

 conili building is ever doni' by any bee while standing in a 

 cell; neither do the bees ever stand in rows and 'excavate,' or 

 any thing of the liind. 



"The finished comb is the result of the united efforts of the 

 moving, restless mass, and the great mystery is, that anything 

 so wonelerful can ever result at all, from such a mixed-up, skip- 

 ping-about way of working, as they seem to have. 



"When the cells are built out only part way, they are filled 

 with honey or eggs, and the length is increased when they feel 

 dis]iosed. or 'get around to it,' perhaps; as a thick rim is left 

 ■around the upper eilge of the cell, they have the material at 

 hanil, to lengthen it at any time. This thick rim is also very 

 nei'cssary to give the bees a secure foothold, for the sieles of the 

 cells arc so thin, they would be very apt to break down with 

 e\en the light weight of a bee. When honey is coming in rap- 

 idly, and the bees are crowdeel for room to store it, their 

 eagerness is so plainly apparent, as they push the work along, 

 that they fairly seem -to epiiver with excitement; but, for all 

 that, they skip about from one cell to another in the same 

 way, no one Ijee wnrkiiit;' in the same spot to exceed a minute 

 ■or two. at the very outside. Very frequently, after one has bent 

 a piece of wax a certain way, the next tips it in the opposite 

 direction, and so on until completion; but after all have given 

 it a twist or a pull, it is found in pretty nearly the right spot. 

 As near as I can discover, they moisten the thin ribbons of 

 wax, with some sort of fluid or saliva (41). As the bee always 

 preserves the thick rib* or rim of the comb he is working, the 

 looker-on would suppose he was making the walls oi a consid- 

 erable thickness, but if we drive him away, anel break this 

 rim, we will find that his mandibles have come so nearly to- 



* The constant preserving cf this rib or heavy edge of the comb 

 ■while the -work progresses, explains why old comb lengthened and 

 sealed -n'ith new -wax, sometimes retains a part of its dark color 

 throughout. Some of the old wax is undoubtedly mixed with the new, 

 in the crnstant remodeling of this heavier edge, till the comb is sealed. 



