SAGACITY OF BEES. 
355 
other, preventing any nearer approach. (This may 
be illustrated by turning the hive a few inches from 
the perpendicular after being filled with combs in 
warm weather.) 
MAKING PASSAGES TO EVERY PART OP THEIR COMBS. 
Should nearly all the combs in the hive become de- 
tached from any cause, and lie on the bottom in one 
“ grand smash of ruin,” their first steps are, as just de- 
scribed, pillars from one to the other to keep them as 
they are. In a few days, in warm weather, they will 
have made passages by biting away combs where they 
are in contact, throughout every part of the mass; 
little columns of wax below, supporting the combs 
above, — irregular, to be sure, but as well as circum- 
stances admit. Not a single piece can be removed 
without breaking it from the others, and the whole 
will be firmly cemented together. A piece of comb 
filled with honey, and sealed up, may be put in a glass 
box with the ends of these cells so sealed, touching 
the glass. The principle of allowing no part of their 
tenement to be in a situation inaccessible, is soon man- 
ifested. They immediately bite off the ends of the 
cells, remove the honey that is in the way, and make 
a passage next to the glass, leaving a few bars from it 
to the comb, to steady and keep it in its position. A 
single sheet of comb lying flat on the bottom-board of 
a populous swarm is cut away under side, for a pas- 
sage in every direction, numerous little pillars of wax 
being left for its support. Now any person in the 
habit of watching their proceedings, with any degree 
