The Life of the Bee 
the shells were more or less cracked 
and broken ; and they had considered it 
simpler, therefore, to bury the entire snail ; 
and had further contrived, in order that 
circulation in the entrance-hall might not 
be impeded, a number of galleries exactly 
proportionate, not to their own girth, 
but to that of the males, which are 
almost twice as large as themselves. 
Does not this instance, and the one that 
follows, warrant our believing that they 
would in time discover the cause of the 
queen’s inability to follow them through 
the trellis? They have a very nice sense 
of proportion, and of the space required 
for the movement of bodies. In the 
regions where the hideous death’s-head 
sphinx, the acherontia atropos, abounds, 
they construct little pillars of wax at the 
entrance of the hive, so restricting the di- 
mension as to prevent the passage of the 
nocturnal marauder’s enormous abdomen. 
114 
