118 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



nal organs of the bees. The pollen of flowers is collected 

 in a like manner, swallowed, and regurgitated in the form 

 of bee-bread or food for the larva. When wax is needed, 

 the bees gorge themselves with honey and hang suspended 

 in festoons or curtains for about twenty-four hours, when 

 the wax is found secreted in the form of a little scale be- 

 tween the overlapping rings of the abdomen, which spaces 

 are called wax-pockets. So that when we see bees hang in 

 clusters in other than the swarming season we may know 

 that they are engaged in the manufacture of wax. 



13. Of the treatment of these wax-scales Huber says : 

 " The worker disengages it by means of pincers on his legs, 

 and by seizing it in his mouth. Wo remarked that with 

 its claws it turned the wax in every necessary direction ; 

 that the edge of the scale was immediately broken down, 

 and the fragments, having been accumulated in the hollow 

 of the mandibles, issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, 

 impregnated with a frothy liquid by the tongue. The 

 tongue assumed the most varied shapes, and performed the 

 most complicated operations, being sometimes flattened 

 like a trowel, and at other times pointed like a pencil ; 

 and, after imbuing the whole substance of the ribbon, 

 pushing it forward into the mandibles, where it was drawn 

 out a second time, but in an opposite direction." 



14. The lenses of the bees' eyes are not adjustable, and, 

 though they can see accurately at great distances, they seem 

 blind to objects close by. Bees dart down to the door of 

 their hives with a precision that is generally unerring, but 

 if, from any cause, they miss the 'opening, they are obliged 

 to rise in the air in order to take another observation. If 

 bees hear at all, it is only such sounds as affect their own 

 welfare. Their sense of smell appears to be very keen : the 

 presence of honey they detect in the most carefully con- 

 cealed places. The sense which appears to be the most 

 perfect with them is touch, which resides wholly in the 



