COMMON HUMBLE-BEE. 
251 
males., and the workers, all perish before the cold 
season arrives. 
M. P. Huber, to whom we are indebted for many 
of the foregoing facts, relates a very interesting 
anecdote of the instinctive resourses of this insect. 
While carrying on an experiment respecting the 
elaboration of wax, he placed a piece of brood-comb 
with a dozen bees under a hell glass, taking away 
from them every particle of wax, and furnishing 
them with farina only. The comb, from the irregu- 
larity of its shape, did not rest steadily on the table ; 
and when the bees mounted on it, to impart the 
necessary warmth to the brood, its rocking motion 
seemed to annoy them extremely. They had no 
wax wherewith to remedy the evil ; but their in- 
stinct, and their intense affection for their young 
supplied an ingenious expedient. A few of them 
mounted the comb, and letting their bodies down 
towards its lower edge, suspended themselves from 
it, head downwards, by the hooks of their hinder 
feet j and with those of the second pair of legs which 
are very long, laid hold on the table, and thus steadied 
the mass by the mere force of muscular strength. 
(PI. VIII. fig. 4.) In this posture they remained 
till relieved by others, the mother herself lending 
her aid ; and they continued the painful task for 
two or three days. In the mean time, some honey 
with which they had at length been supplied, fur- 
nished them with the means of producing wax, with 
which they immediately set about constructing pillars, 
having their bases resting on the table, and support- 
