How the coarse, spongy comb, which swarms will sometimes manufacture, is produced cannot be definitely stated. It has all the appearance of having been made from raw wax, hurriedly masticated and kneaded up with honey, and probably this is its actual composition. The secretion from the salivary gland, is necessarily slow, and with time pressing and a horde of impatient foragers dinning about her ears, eager to unload and be off again to the clover, the ingenious mason-bee appears to have hit on the idea of using the contents of her honey-sac as a substitute. Nothing, however, but a mechanical admixture can take place between honey and the raw wax. This dissolves only under the influence of the bee’s saliva, which has intensely acid properties. To understand all that the bees have accomplished when a new empty hive has been filled throughout with waxen comb, it is necessary to follow the operations of the swarm pretty closely during the first few weeks of its separate life. It is a big undertaking, the building of an entire, new bee-city, and the problems that confront the builders are many and complicated. In the first place, whether she ever attains it or not, the worker-bee will aim at nothing short of perfection. Hereditary experience tells her exactly what are the home-requirements of the colony, and she now sets to work to fulfil them in the best imaginable way. A city is to be built which is to accommodate twenty or thirty thousand individuals. Vast nursery-quarters must be constructed, as there may be as many as ten or twelve thousand youngsters to cradle at one and the same time. For at least six months of the year no food will be obtainable from outside, so that the city must contain large storehouses capable of holding more than a six months’ supply. As the temperature in winter can be kept up only by the bodily warmth of the inhabitants, life in the city must be concentrated into the smallest possible space; and the materials of which the city is built must be heat-conserving, while its construction must allow of perfect ventilation at all times, and in summer it must permit a free circulation of air, that the surplus heat can be readily carried off. The city must be a fortress as well as a home, and be closed in on every side as a protection against its many enemies, as well as the weather.