HABITATIONS OF INSECTS. 



421 



more a comb is enlarged below, the more it is necessary that 

 it should be enlarged upwards to the top of the hive. The 

 bees that are engaged in lengthening the comb work with 

 more celerity than those which increase its width ; and those 

 that ascend or increase its width upwards, more slowly than 

 the rest. Hence it arises that it is longer than wide, and 

 narrower towards the top than towards the middle. The 

 first formed cells are usually not so deep as those in the 

 middle ; but Avhen the comb is of a certain height, they are 

 in haste to lengthen these cells so essential to the solidity of 

 the whole, sometimes even making them longer than the rest. 

 The cells are not perfectly horizontal ; they are almost always 

 a little higher towards their mouth than at their base, so that 

 their axis is not perpendicular to the partition that separates 

 the two assemblages. They sometimes vary from the hori- 

 zontal line more than 20°, usually 4° or 5°. When the bees 

 enlarge the diameter of the cells preparatory to the formation 

 of male cells, the bottoms often consist of two rhomboids and 

 two hexagons, the size and form of which vary, and they 

 correspond with four instead of three opposite cells. The 

 works of bees are symmetrical less perhaps in minute details 

 than considered as a whole. Sometimes, indeed, their combs 

 have a fantastic form ; but this, if traced, will be found to be 

 caused by circumstances : one irregularity occasions another, 

 and both usually have their origin in the dispositions which 

 we make them adopt. The inconstancy of climate, too, oc- 

 casions frequent interruptions, and injures the symmetry of 

 the combs ; for a work resumed is always less perfect than 

 one followed up until completed. 



At first the substance of the cells is of a dead white, semi- 

 transparent, soft, and though even, not smooth : but in a few 

 days it loses most of these qualities, or rather acquires new 

 ones ; a yellow tint spreads over the cells, particularly their 

 interior surface : their edges become thicker, and they have 

 acquired a consistence, which at first they did not possess. 

 The combs, also, when finished are heavier than the unfinished 

 ones : these last are broken by the slightest touch, whereas 

 the former will bend sooner than break. Their orifices also 



E E 3 



