The Life of the Bee 
these are to be enlarged or lengthened ; 
though it must be admitted that in this 
case the “blind building instinct” fails 
signally to account for their demolishing 
in order that they may rebuild, or undoing 
what has been done that it may be done 
afresh, and with more regularity. I will 
content myself also with a mere reference 
to the remarkable experiment that enables 
us, with the aid of a piece of glass, to 
compel the bees to start their combs at a 
right angle; when they most ingeniously 
contrive that the enlarged cells on the 
convex side shall coincide with the reduced 
cells on the concave side of the comb. 
But before finally quitting this subject 
let us pause, though it be but for an in- 
stant, and consider the mysterious fashion 
in which they manage to act in concert 
and combine their labour, when simul- 
taneously carving two opposite sides of a 
comb, and unable therefore to see each 
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