[236] Reaum. ubi supr. 437—.
[237] Philos. Trans. 1807, 242.
[238] xxxi. 148.
[239] Knight in Philos. Trans. for 1807, 237. Marshall, Agricult. of Norfolk.
[240] It has been supposed, and the supposition was adopted originally in this work (Vol. I. 1st Ed. p. 371), that the object in this case is brooding the eggs; but upon further consideration we incline to Huber's opinion, that it has no connexion with it, the ordinary temperature of the hive being sufficient for this purpose; and the circumstance of their entering unoccupied cells proves that this attitude has no particular connexion with the eggs. Huber, i. 212.—"When large pieces of comb," says Wildman (p. 45), "were broken off and left at the bottom of the hive, a great number of bees have gone and placed themselves upon them." This looks like incubation. Reaumur however affirms (p. 591) that if part of a comb falls and loses its perpendicular direction, the bees, as if conscious that they would come to nothing, pull out and destroy all the larvæ. They might perhaps remain perpendicular in the case observed by Wildman.
[241] Reaum. v. 431. Huber, ii. 212.
[242] Reaum. v. 432—.
[243] Reaum. v. 434—.
[244] Vol. I. [331], Reaum. v. 698—.
[245] Philos. Trans. 1792, 160. Comp. Reaum. v. 450.