PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



157 



its labours to the benefit of the community to which it be- 

 longs. Walking upon the combs, it seeks for the door of the 

 hive, that it may sally forth and be useful. Full of life and 

 activity, it then takes its first flight ; and, unconducted but 

 by its instinct, visits like the rest the subjects of Flora, ab- 

 sorbs their nectar, covers itself with their ambrosial dust, 

 which it kneads into a mass and packs upon its hind legs ; 

 and, if need be, gathers propolis, and returns unembarrassed 

 to its own hive. 1 



Instances of the expedition with which our little favourites 

 accomplish their various objects you have had several ; but 

 this is never more remarkable than when they settle in a new 

 hive. At this time, in twenty-four hours they will sometimes 

 construct a comb twenty inches long by seven or eight wide ; 

 and the hive will be half filled in five or six days ; so that in 

 the first fifteen days as much wax is made as in the whole 

 year besides. 2 



In treating of the various employments of the bees, I must 

 not omit one of the greatest importance to them — the ventila- 

 tion of their abode. When you consider the numbers con- 

 tained in so confined a space, the high temperature to which 

 its atmosphere is raised, and the small aperture at which 

 the air principally enters, you will readily conceive how soon 

 it must be rendered unfit for respiration, and be convinced 

 that there must be some means of constantly renewing it. If 

 you feel disposed to think that the ventilation takes place, as 

 in our apartments, by natural means, resulting from the rare- 

 faction of the air by the heat of the hive, and the consequent 

 establishment of an interior and exterior current, a simple 

 experiment will satisfy you that this cannot be. Take a vessel 

 of the size of a bee-hive, with a similar or even somewhat 

 larger aperture ; introduce a lighted taper, and if the temper- 

 ature be raised to more than 140°, it will go out in a short 

 time. We must therefore admit, as Huber observes 3 , that 

 the bees possess the astonishing faculty of attracting the ex- 

 ternal air, and at the same time of expelling that which has 

 become corrupted by their respiration. 



i Reaum. v. 602. 



a Ibid. 656. 



3 ii. 339. 



