The Foundation of the City 
the width of the avenues between, which 
must be about half an inch, or in other 
words twice the height of a bee, since there 
must be room to pass back to back between 
the combs. 
The bees, however, are not infallible, 
nor does their certainty appear mechanical. 
They will commit grave errors at times 
when circumstances present unusual diffi- 
culty. They will often leave too much 
space, or too little, between the combs. 
This they will remedy as best they can, 
either by giving an oblique twist to the 
comb that too nearly approaches the other, 
or by introducing an irregular comb into 
the gap. ‘‘The bees will sometimes make 
mistakes,” Réaumur remarks on this subject, 
“and herein we may find yet another fact 
which appears to prove that they reason.” 
56 
We know that the bees construct four 
kinds of cells. First of all, the royal cells, 
which are exceptional, and contrived some- 
what in the shape of an acorn; then the 
153 
