THE COMB-BUILDERS 201 



by a swarm will have a yellow, moist, spongy 

 appearance, with thick, irregular walls, and are 

 obviously little more than temporary vats to hold 

 the incoming nectar until the proper honey-cells 

 can be constructed. This emergency -comb is 

 specially interesting, as affording one more instance 

 of the worker-bee's ever- ready resource in the 

 presence of difficulties. In the ordinary way the 

 mason-bee hangs quietly in the cluster until her 

 wax-secreting organs have done their work, and 

 the six little oblong scales of brittle material are 

 ready for manipulation. These protrude from 

 under the hard plates of her abdomen, three on 

 each side, looking much like half-posted letters. 

 At one of the knee-joints of her hind-leg she has 

 a peculiar implement, of which there is not the 

 slightest trace in the queen-bee. This is like a 

 pair of nippers, but instead of two converging 

 points, it is furnished on one side with a row of 

 sharp, stiff bristles, and on the other with a shallow 

 spoon. With this special tool the worker-bee grips 

 the wax-scale, and draws it out of its pocket. It 

 is then transferred to her jaws, and she hurries off 

 with it to the comb-building. Arrived at an un- 

 finished cell, she sets to work to chew up the raw 

 wax into a paste, incorporating it with her saliva, 

 and materially increasing its bulk. The resulting 

 soft, ductile matter is then applied to the work, and 

 moulded into its needed shape. In this way, with 

 hundreds of workers going and coming, the delicate 



