APIS. 
353 
way through the arched portal. They have been known 
to kill these enemies within the hive as they could not 
make them withdraw, but perplexity results from their 
success; they are, however, gifted with the sagacity to 
know that the putridity of these masses will poison with 
its effluvia the atmosphere of their city which no venti¬ 
lation can purify, and they convert that part of their 
metropolis into a mausoleum, covering the carcases 
with a coating of propolis, alone or mixed with wax, as 
before noticed. Those which execute this summary 
martial law are the sentinels—the armed police of the 
hive—which guard its entrance and avenues, and patrol 
its streets and lanes and passages. Concurrently with 
all these doings, scavengers are heedfully conveying away 
any particles of dirt or other undesirable superfluity 
which may have accidentally found its way in. That all 
these labours produce fatigue and exact rest is proved 
by the circumstance that many bees are always observed 
in a state of repose,—perhaps only forty winks during 
the day just to restore exhausted energy,—for they are 
soon seen again to resume their toil, this inactivity 
never being idleness. Whether they proceed with the 
same kind of employment upon the renewal of their 
work is not known, nor how long lasts a particular kind 
of labour, but the change of occupation may be one of 
frequent occurrence, and it may be presumed that each 
bee severally and successively undertakes each task, that 
the faculty for exercising it may not be extinguished. 
It is very possibly a daily change, which circulates 
through the entire civic population of workers. 
Although the labours of the bees are divided, we do 
not find that even the most successful observers, who 
have had every opportunity, by the nature of the hives 
2 A 
