THE BUSY BEE 215 



One cold night a touch of frost will settle their 

 case, and they will pass away with alcoholic 

 dreams. 



The drone is a great deceiver of human kind. 

 He is of more robust build and altogether of 

 more dread -inspiring aspect than the worker bees, 

 and ninety -nine people out of the hundred treat 

 him with respect. But he is no more able to 

 inflict punishment than a bluebottle fly. He is, 

 in fact, a pure humbug, for, knowing himself un- 

 armed, he carries himself with all the terrifying 

 airs of a gladiator. Capture him and he will raise 

 his abdomen with the same threatening gesture as 

 the sting -bearing worker ; blow smoke upon him 

 and he will erect his hair and execute a series of 

 menacing movements, all carried out with .such 

 verisimilitude as to overawe even knowledge of 

 his helplessness. In short, he trades upon the 

 real terrors of the ladies of the hives. 



How, then, it will be asked, can one distinguish 

 in order to give respect only where respect is 

 due? The correct way is to approach your bee, 

 magnifying-glass in hand. Concentrate attention 

 upon the two upper segments of its hind leg. If 

 these, the tibia and the first tarsal joint, are found 

 to be broadened out and fringed with hairs, leave 

 that bee alone, for it is a female and bears a 

 sting, and the appearances alluded to constitute 

 its pollen-brush and corbiculum or bread-basket. 

 If the corbiculum is absent the bee is a drone, and 

 you can afford to be bloody, bold, and resolute. 



