INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 4.87 
vent a second accident of the same nature. These last 
had not been displaced, and appeared solidly attached by 
their base; whence Huber was not a little surprised to 
see the bees strengthen their principal points of connexion 
by making them much thicker than before with old wax, 
and forming numerous ties and braces to unite them more 
closely to each other and to the walls of their habitation.— 
‘What was still more extraordinary, all this happened in 
the middle of January, at a period when the bees ordi- 
narily cluster at the top of the hive, and do not engage 
in labours of this kind. 
You will admit, I think, that these proofs of the re- 
sources of the architectural instinct of bees are truly ad- 
mirable. If, in the case of the substitution of mitys for 
the first range of waxen cells, this procedure zmvariably 
took place in every bee-hive at a fixed period—when, for 
example, the combs are two-thirds filled with honey—it 
would be less surprising: but there is nothing of this in- 
variable character about it. It does not, as Huber ex- 
pressly informs us®, occur at any marked and regular 
period, but appears to depend on several circumstances 
not always combined. Sometimes the bees content them- 
selves with bordering the sides of the upper cells with 
propolis alone, without altering their form or giving them 
greater thickness. And it is not less remarkable that, 
from the instances last cited, it appears that they are not 
confined to one kind of cement for strengthening and 
supporting their combs, but avail themselves of propolis, 
wax, or a mixture of both, as circumstances direct. 
Not to weary you with examples of the modifications 
a Jpid. i. 280. » Huber, ii. 284, note *. 
