BEES AND WASPS— GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 185 
themselves against their enemies. The bulwark was de- 
stroyed again in 1808. 
Again, Huber ( loc . cit ., tom. ii., p. 280) gives a case 
of apparent exercise of reason, or power of inference 
from a particular case to other and general cases. A 
piece of comb fell down and was fixed in its new position by 
wax. The bees then strengthened the attachments of 
all the other combs, clearly because they inferred that 
they too might be in danger of falling. This is a very 
remarkable case, and leads Huber to exclaim, 6 1 admit 
that I was unable to avoid a feeling of astonishment in 
the presence of a fact from which the purest reason seemed 
to shine out. 5 
A closely similar, and therefore corroborative case of 
an even more remarkable kind is thus narrated in Watson’s 
4 Seasoning Power of Animals 5 (jk 448) 
Dr. Brown, in his book on the bee, gives another illustration 
of the reasoning power of bees, observed by a friend of his. A 
centre comb in a hive, being overburdened with honey, had 
parted from its fastenings, and was pressing against another 
comb, so as to prevent the passage of the bees between them. 
This accident excited great bustle in the colony, and as soon as 
their proceedings could be observed, it was found that they had 
constructed two horizontal beams between the two combs, and 
had removed enough of the honey and wax above them to admit 
the passage of a bee, while the detached comb had been secured 
by another beam, and fastened to the window with spare wax. 
But what was most remarkable was, that, when the comb was 
thus fixed, they removed the horizontal beams first constructed, 
as being of no further use. The whole occupation took about 
ten days. 
Again, Mr. Darwin’s MS. quotes from Sir B. Brodie’s 
4 Psychological Inquiries ’ (1854, p. 88) the following case, 
which is analogous to the above, except that the supports 
required had to be made in a vertical instead of in a 
horizontal direction : — 
On one occasion, when a large portion of the honeycomb 
had been broken off, they pursued another course. The frag- 
ment had somehow become fixed in the middle of the hive, and 
the bees immediately began to erect a new structure of comb on 
the floor, so placed as to form a pillar supporting the fragment, 
