Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

412 COMPLETION OE THE CELLS.
tuted for the slight partitions, previously
built with such regularity. The substance
had changed along with the form, being
composed apparently of wax and propolis.
From the perseverance of the workers in
their devastations, we suspected that they
proposed some useful alteration of their edi¬
fices ; and our attention was directed to the
cells least injured. Several were yet un¬
touched ; but the bees soon rushed precipi¬
tately on them, destroyed the tubes, broke
down the wax, and threw off the fragments.
But we remarked, that the bottom of the
cells of the first row was spared; neither
W'ere the corresponding parts on both faces
of the comb demolished at the same time.
The bees laboured at them alternately,
leaving some of the natural supports, other¬
wise the comb would have fallen down, which
was not their object: they wished, on the
contrary, to provide it a more solid base,
and to secure its union to the vault of the
hive, with a substance whose adhesive pro¬
perties infinitely surpassed those of wax.
The propolis employed on this occasion had
been deposited in a mass over a cleft of the
hive, and had hardened in drying, which pro¬
bably rendered it more suitable for the pur-