10 pliny's natural history. [Book XI. 



chastised, and on a repetition of the fault, punished with death. 

 Their sense of cleanliness, too, is quite extraordinary ; every- 

 thing is removed that might be in the way, and no filth is 

 allowed to remain in the midst of their work. The ordure 

 even of those that are at work within, that they may not have 

 to retire to any distance, is all collected in one spot, and on 

 stormy days, when they are obliged to cease their ordinary 

 labours, they employ themselves in carrying it out. When 

 it grows towards evening, the buzzing in the hive becomes 

 gradually less and less, until at last one of their number is to 

 be seen flying about the hive with the same loud humming 

 noise with which they were aroused in the morning, there- 

 by giving the signal, as it were, to retire to rest : in this, too, 

 they imitate the usage of the camp. The moment the signal 

 is heard, all is silent. 



(11.) They first construct the dwellings of the commonalty, 

 and then those of the king-bee. If they have reason to expect 

 an abundant 25 season, they add abodes also for the drones: 

 these are cells of a smaller size, though the drones themselves 

 are larger than the bees. 



CHAP. 11. — DRONES. 



The drones have no sting, 26 and would seem to be a kind of 

 imperfect bee, formed the very last of all ; the expiring effort, 

 as it were, of worn-out and exhausted old age, a late and tardy 

 offspring, "and doomed, in a measure, to be the slaves of the 

 genuine bees. Hence it is that the bees exercise over thein a 

 rigorous authority, compel them to take the foremost rank in 

 their labours, and if they show any sluggishness, punish them 27 

 without mercy. And not only in their labours do the drones 

 give them their assistance, but in the propagation of their spe- 

 cies as well, the very multitude of them contributing greatly 

 to the warmth of the hive. At all events, it is a well-known 

 fact, that the greater 28 the multitude of the drones, the more 



25 Cuvier says that the three kinds of cells are absolutely necessary, and 

 that they do not depend on the greater or less abundance. The king ot 

 the ancients is what we know as thegueenhee, which is impregnated by the 

 drones or males. 



26 This is the fact, but not so their imperfect state. 



w They do not work, but merely impregnate the queen;, after which 

 they are driven from the hive, and perish of cold and starvation. 



=8 It appears, as Cuvier says, that the ancients had some notion that the 

 swarm was multiplied by the aid of the drones. 



