488 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
of instinct we are considering, I shall introduce but three 
more:—the first, of the mode in which bees extend the 
dimensions of an old comb; the second, of that which 
they adopt in constructing the male cells and connecting 
them with the smaller cells of workers; and the last, of 
the plan pursued by them when it becomes necessary to 
bend their combs. 
You must have observed that a comb newly made be- 
comes gradually thinner at its edges, the cells there, 
on each side, progressively decreasing in length: but in 
time these marginal cells, as they are wanted for the 
purposes of the hive, are elongated to the depth of the 
rest. Now suppose bees, from an augmentation of the 
size of their hive, to have occasion to extend their combs 
either in length or breadth, the process which they adopt 
is this: They gnaw away the tops of the marginal cells 
until the combs have resumed their original lenticular 
form, and then construct upon their edges the pyramidal 
lozenge-shaped bottoms of cells, wpon which the hexago- 
nal sides are subsequently raised, as in their operation 
of cell-building. ‘This course of proceeding is invariable: 
they never extend a comb in any direction whatever, 
without having first made its edges thinner, diminishing 
its thickness in a portion sufficiently large to leave no 
angular projection.— Huber observes, and with reason, 
in relating this surprising law which obliges bees par- 
tially to demolish the ceils situated upon the edges of the 
combs, that it deserves a more close examination than 
he found himself competent to give it: for, if we may to 
a certain point form a conception of the instinct which 
leads these animals to employ their art of building cells, 
yet how can we conceive of that which in particular cir- 
