THE HONEY-BEE. 
Ill 
branch of their natural history are calculated to excite 
the deepest interest, and we regret that our limits 
oblige us to forego the pleasure of reciting them, and 
to refer our readers to the original work. W e cannot, 
however, omit one extract from his observations, 
which strikingly proves that though the bees, when 
left to themselves, regulate their operations with per- 
fect uniformity, they are yet capable of modifying 
them in particular circumstances. “Having seen 
bees,” says he, “ work both upwards and downwards, 
we wished to investigate whether we could compel 
them to construct their combs in any other direction. 
We tried to confound them with a hive glazed above 
and below, so that they had no place of support but 
the upright sides of their dwelling ; lodging themselves 
in the upper anglo, they built their combs perpendi- 
cular to one of these sides, and as regularly as those 
which they usually build under a horizontal surface. 
I put them to a still greater trial: As they now testified 
their inclination to carry their combs in the shortest 
way to the opposite side of the hive, — for they prefer 
uniting them to wood, or a surface rougher than glass, 
— I covered it with a pane of this last mentioned 
material. Whenever this smooth and slippery sub- 
stance was interposed between them and the wood, 
they departed from the straight line hitherto followed 
and bent the structure of their comb at a right angle 
to what was already made, so that the prolongation 
of the extremity might reach another side of the hive 
which had been left free. Varying this experiment 
after several fashions, I sawtlie bees constantly change 
