38 DEATH S HEAD SPHINX. 



suade me that a buttei-fly, an insect wanting a sting, 

 unprovided with any shield or other means of de- 

 fence, could contend victoriously against thousands 

 of bees ; but this year they were so common, that 

 it was easy to be convinced of the fact. 



" As the enterprises of the Sphinx constantly 

 became more fatal to the bees, we resolved to pre- 

 vent its access, by contracting the entrance of the 

 hive by a kind of grating large enough to admit 

 none but its proper tenants. This plan had com- 

 plete success, quiet was restored, and the devasta- 

 tion ceased. 



" The same precautions had not been universally 

 taken ; but we observed that the bees, left to them- 

 selves, had provided for their own security. Without 

 any foreign aid, they had barricaded themselves, by 

 means of a thick wall of propolis and wax, rising 

 behind the entrance of the hive, sometimes in the 

 entrance itself, and completely obstructing it, but 

 penetrated by passages for one or two workers at a 

 time. 



" The operations of man and of the insect had 

 completely coincided. 



" The works which the bees had established were 

 of very various formation. Here was a single wall, 

 whose opening arcades were disposed in its higher 

 part ; there several bulwarks behind each other 

 recalled the bastions of ou}- citadels. Gateways, 

 masked by walls in front, opened on the face of 



