230 
INSTINCT. 
Chap. VII. 
plate had been completed, and ]ididLhQ(dom.e perfectly fiat: 
it was absolutely impossible, from the extreme thinness 
of the little rhombic plate, that they could have effected 
this by gnawing away the convex side; and I suspect 
that the bees in such cases stand in the opposed cells 
and push and bend the ductile and warm wax (which 
as I have tried is easily done) into its proper interme¬ 
diate plane, and thus flatten it. 
From the experiment of the ridge of vermilion wax, 
we can clearly see that if the bees were to build for 
themselves a thin wall of wax, they could make their 
cells of the proper shape, by standing at the proper dis¬ 
tance from each other, by excavating at the same rate, 
and by endeavouring to make equal spherical hollows, 
but never allowing the spheres to break into each 
other. Now bees, as may be clearly seen by examining 
the edge of a growing comb, do make a rough, circum¬ 
ferential wall or rim all round the comb ; and they 
gnaw into this from the opposite sides, always working 
circularly as they deepen each cell. They do not make 
the whole three-sided pyramidal base of any one cell at 
the same time, but only the one rhombic plate which 
stands on the extreme growing margin, or the two plates, 
as the case may be ; and they never complete the upper 
edges of the rhombic plates, until the hexagonal walls 
are commenced. Some of these statements differ from 
those made by the justly celebrated elder Huber, 
but I am convinced of their accuracy; and if I had 
space, I could show that they are conformable with my 
theory. 
Huber’s statement that the very first cell is excavated 
out of a little parallel-sided wall of wax, is not, as far as 
I have seen, strictly correct; the first commencement 
having always been a little hood of wax; but I will 
not here enter on these details. We see how important 
