Having thus issued forth in a body, they shortly alight upon and about the branch of some adjacent tree, clustering, in as close proximity as they can, to their royal leader. In a natural state, when duly organized to proceed, they would thence start for the domicile that had previously been selected by the emissaries above noted; but, as their natural habits are not at all perverted by their subjugation to man, we will pursue their history under his dominion. This will be the more convenient, for in the comfortable hive to which they have been transferred by his agency, we shall have every opportunity of exactly watching their manœuvres by the facilities yielded in its being glazed for the purpose. We shall thus be enabled to see and follow the wonderful economy of the hive and its many mysteries, which it would not have been possible to accomplish in an abode of their own choice,—some cavity presented by Nature herself, the hollow of a tree, or an excavated rock. They are, therefore, now housed, and after the survey of the capacity of their abode, which is a short affair, with all the prompt energy peculiar to them they at once commence their labours. The queen is already matured, and ready to lay eggs. In a natural abode the gathering of propolis would perhaps be a first necessity to make their home water-and-wind-tight, for they abhor the inconveniences of the intrusion of wet or cold. It is with this material that they make repairs, fill crevices, and strengthen the suspension of their combs, which are hung vertically; and they apply it also to other purposes, which we shall see hereafter. This material is of a resinous nature, it has a balsamic odour, and is of a reddish-brown or darker colour, and is supposed to be collected from fir or pine trees, or from the envelopes of the buds of many plants, or their resinous exudations, especially that of the blossoms of the hollyhock. It is exceedingly clammy, and they have been observed ten minutes moulding it into the lenticular pellets in which they carry it home in the corbicula, or little basket, of the posterior tibiæ. They gather it like pollen with the fore feet, and pass it to the intermediate ones, whence it is taken by the posterior plantæ, kneaded into shape, and deposited upon the hind shanks. It dries so rapidly that often, upon arriving home, the bees which store it have much difficulty in tearing it from the legs of these collectors. The hottest days only are propitious to its gathering, for all moisture is injurious to it, and the hottest period of the day, also, is alone occupied in its collection. It is said that they have been known to fly as many as from three to five miles for it, from the circumstance that suitable plants were not to be found within a lesser radius; but this may be a mistake, for their ordinary excursions are not supposed to range wider than a single mile or something more, and bees may be able to find it where we may suppose it not to occur. In the abode with which we have provided them it is not so urgent a necessity, this being already wind-and-water-tight, although in the progress of their labours they find it indispensable, and use it to fasten the crevices that intervene between the bottom of the hive and the bee board, and, as before noticed, to strengthen the support of the cakes of comb which hang from the roof. The name it still retains is that which was applied to it by the ancients, and signifies _before the city_, as indicative of its use in strengthening the outworks.