THE HONEY-BEE. 71 



by his loud humming sound. We have said that 

 the primary function of the drones is to perpetuate 

 the race of Bees by pairing with the Queen, but some 

 Naturalists have assigned them a secondary office, 

 namely, that of contributing by their numbers to the 

 heat of the hive, and thus aiding in bringing the brood 

 to maturity. In some parts of the continent, accord- 

 ingly, Feburier tells us, they have received the name 

 of Hatchers. There are occasionally found Drones 

 of a small size in hives where the impregnation of 

 the Queen has been retarded. In such circumstances, 

 her instinct, as we shall have occasion to shew in the 

 following chapter, is so impaired, that she lays her 

 eggs indiscriminately in all kinds of cells, those of 

 males sometimes in the cells of workers. The con- 

 sequence is, that these males, when hatched, are 

 diminutive in size, having been cramped in their 

 growth by the smallness of their birth-place. 



The life of this vir gregis is extremely short ; the 

 favoured lover perishes soon after his union with the 

 female, and thus anticipates, though only by a short 

 period, the destruction which awaits his race. So 

 early as the beginning of August, the Bees, as if 

 wishing to apply " the preventive check" to a super- 

 abundant idle population, begin to manifest deadly in- 

 tentions towards them ; and the unfortunate victims, 

 as if to derive consolation from one another's society, 

 or perhaps driven together by their irascible supe- 

 riors, may be seen about that period clustering closely 

 together in some corner of the combs, where they 

 remain without motion, and without once venturing 



