224 Special Instincts. Chap. viii. 



and by endeavouring to make equal spherical hollows, but never 

 allowing the spheres to break into each other. Now bees, as may- 

 be clearly seen by examining the edge of a growing comb, do make 

 a rough, circumferential wall or rim all round the comb ; and they 

 gnaw this away from the opposite sides, always working circularly 

 as they deepen each cell. They do not make the whole three-sided 

 pyramidal base of any one cell at the same time, but only that 

 one rhombic plate which stands on the extreme growing margin, or 

 the two plates, as the case may be ; and they never complete the 

 upper edges of the rhombic plates, until the hexagonal walls are 

 commenced. Some of these statements differ from those made by 

 the justly celebrated elder Huber, but I am convinced of their 

 accuracy ; and if I had space, I could show that they are conformable 

 with my theory. 



Huber's statement, that the very first cell is excavated out of a 

 little parallel-sided wall of wax, is not, as far as I have seen, strictly 

 correct ; the first commencement having always been a little hood 

 of wax ; but I will not here enter on details. We see how important 

 a part excavation plays in the construction of the cells; but it 

 would be a great error to suppose that the bees cannot build up a 

 rough wall of wax in the proper position — that is, along the plane 

 of intersection between two adjoining spheres. I have several spe- 

 cimens showing clearly that they can do this. Even in the rude 

 circumferential rim or wall of wax round a growing comb, flexures 

 may sometimes be observed, corresponding in position to the planes 

 of the rhombic basal plates of future cells. But the rough wall of 

 wax has in every case to be finished off, by being largely gnawed 

 away on both sides. The manner in which the bees build is 

 curious ; they always make the first rough wall from ten to twenty 

 times thicker than the excessively thin finished wall of the cell, 

 which will ultimately be left. We shall understand how they 

 work, by supposing masons first to pile up a broad ridge of cement, 

 and then to begin cutting it away equally on both sides near the 

 ground, till a smooth, very thin wall is left in the middle; the 

 masons always piling up the cut-away cement, and adding fresh 

 cement on the summit of the ridge. We shall thus have a thin 

 wall steadily growing upward but always crowned by a gigantic 

 coping. From all the cells, both those just commenced and those 

 completed, being thus crowned by a strong coping of wax, the bees 

 can cluster and crawl over the comb without injuring the delicate 

 hexagonal walls. These walls, as Professor Miller has kindly ascer- 

 tained for me, vary greatly in thickness ; being, on an average of 

 twelve measurements made near the border of the comb *■** of an 



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