INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 481 
the yet unreaped fields, where they lay their eggs; while 
the moths which are disclosed in the granaries after harvest, 
stay there, and never attempt to go out, but lay their eggs 
upon the stored wheat*.—This is as extraordinary and 
inexplicable as if a litter of rabbits produced in spring 
were impelled by instinct to eat vegetables, while another 
produced in autumn should be as irresistibly directed to 
choose flesh. 
It is, however, into the history of the hive-bee that we 
must look for the most striking examples of variation of 
instinct; and here, as in every thing relating to this in- 
sect, the work of the elder Huber is an unfailing source 
of the most novel and interesting facts. 
It is the ordinary instinct of bees to lay the foundation 
of their combs at the top of the hive, building them per- 
pendicularly downwards; and they pursue this plan so 
constantly, that you might examine a thousand (probably 
ten thousand) hives, without finding any material devia- 
tion from it. Yet Huber in the course of his experiments 
forced them to build their combs perpendicularly up- 
ward>; and, what seems even more remarkable, in an 
horizontal direction °. 
The combs of bees are always at an uniform distance 
from each other, namely about one third of an inch, 
which is just wide enough to allow them to pass easily 
and have access to the young brood. On the approach 
of winter, when their honey-cells are not sufficient in 
number to contain all the stock, they elongate them con- 
siderably, and thus increase their capacity. By this ex- 
tension the intervals between the combs are unavoidably 
@ (Huvres, ix. 370. b Huber, ii. 134 —. © Thid, ii. 216. 
VOL. II. 21 
