S20 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
It is well known that the habitation of bees ought to be 
very close; and what their hives want, from the negligence 
or unskilfulness of man, these animals supply by their own 
industry : so that it is their principal care, when first hived, 
to stop up all the crannies. For this purpose, they make use 
of a resinous gum, which is more tenacious than wax, and 
diHers greatly from it. This the ancients called Propolis; it 
will grow considerably hard in June ; though it will in some 
measure soften by heat; and is often found different in con- 
sistence, colour, and smell. It has generally an agreeable 
aromatic odour when it is warmed; and by some it is consi- 
dered as a most grateful perfume. When the bees begin to 
work with it, it is soft, but it acquires a firmer consistence 
every day ; till at length it assumes a brown colour, and be- 
comes much harder than wax. The bees carry it on their 
hinder legs ; and some think it is met with on the birch, the 
willow, and poplar. However it is procured, it is certain that 
they plaister the inside of their hives with this composition. 
Ifexamined through a glass hive, from the hurry the whole 
swarm is in, the whole at first appears like anarchy and con- 
fusion : but the spectator soon finds every animal diligently 
employed, and following one pursuit, with a settled purpose. 
Their teeth are the instruments by which they model and 
fashion their various buildings, and give them such symmetry 
and perfection. They begin at the top of the hive; and 
several of them work at a time at the cells which have two 
faces. If they are stinted with regard to time, they give the 
new cells but half the depth which they ought to havef leav- 
ing them imperfect, till they have sketched out the number of 
cells necessary for the present occasion. The construction 
of their combs costs them a great deal of labour : they are 
made by insensible additions ; and not cast at once in a mould. 
There seems no end of their shaping, finishing, and turning 
them neatly up. The cells for their young are most carefully 
formed ; those designed for lodging the drones are larger 
than the rest ; and that for the queen-bee the largest of all. 
Iloney is not the only food upon which these animals subsist. 
The meal of flowers, of which their wax is formed, is one of 
their most favourite repasts. This is a diet which they live 
upon during the summer, and of which they lay up a large 
winter provision. The wax of which their combs are made, 
is no more than this meal digested, and wrought into a paste. 
When the flowers upon which the bees generally feed are not 
fully blown, and this meal or dust is not offereS in sutticient 
quantities, the bees pinch the tops of the stamina in which it 
is contained with their teeth ; and thus anticipate the progress 
of vegetation. In April and May, the bees are busy, from 
