WAX, AND BEE ARCHITECTURE. 175 



is approaching fulness, cap its lower part, then add 

 honey, and increase the cover, placing shred upon 

 shred, after the manner a turf wall is built, until 

 the process is complete ; no smoothing by the bur- 

 nishing action of the maxillae on the inner side is 

 possible, and so the air (left black in the figure) inter- 

 vening between the irregular tape-like shreds cannot 

 escape, and at the close forms a layer between the 

 honey and its cell-lid, giving increased whiteness 

 to the cover, and preventing also immediate leak, even 

 should a fault remain. The air being cut through 

 in uncapping, the caps are removed dry. Steeping 

 in water for three days a well-finished super contain- 

 ing about 780 cells, all but forty-nine revealed that 

 they were defective, by losing their opaque whiteness ; 

 for the honey had absorbed water, and was now in 

 contact with the inner wall. The practical import 

 of this observation will hereafter come before us ; 

 but I must, at the moment, remark that the demand 

 for very thin capping, which one or two English 

 "judges" have made, is not wise, while the reason 

 they have given for preferring it is an error as to 

 fact. 



Although the bee aims at compact coverings for her 

 honey, the sealing of her brood is made porous for 

 an object (as stated at pages 21 and 22), and, when 

 magnified in cross section (A, Fig. 38), shows the 

 looseness of its texture and the varied character of 

 its material, which is never white, and not even prin- 

 cipally wax, only so much of the latter being used 

 as will bind the scraps and debris into oneness. On 

 the back, the cocoon threads (c) are seen catching 



