286 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



appointed time decree the death of their Sovereign- 

 mother. Yet they hesitate to lay violent hands on her. 

 She, as queen, claimed the right in her early youth to 

 slay her sister-queens, and sped them with a dagger- 

 thrust ; now her turn comes to die. But it must be a 

 bloodless death, carried out with due ceremonial. So 

 her daughters cluster about her, and in a mock embrace, 

 that tightens every moment, her breath is squeezed out 

 of her body. There are no State pensions for those who 

 are past work, but a State execution instead. This is 

 vastly more economical, and it may yet commend itself 

 to some would-be social " reformers," who will doubtless 

 contrive to make exceptions to the rule ! 



The execution of a queen is not an event of common 

 occurrence ; but that of male members of the hive forms 

 part of the ordinary routine, though coming only within 

 the larger cycle of the year. As the summer wanes and 

 the harvest of nectar grows perceptibly less, visions of a 

 possible famine, and its attendant horrors, seem to arise. 

 So heads are counted and occupations are scrutinized, 

 when it is discovered that the only members of the 

 community who are contributing nothing to the general 

 well-being are the males, who are now but useless drains 

 on the hive. None of the neighbouring hives are now 

 likely to send forth a virgin queen to her nuptials, to 

 which end each hive is obliged to contribute — for no hive 

 utilizes the services of its own drones ; these idle fellows, 

 then, are " eating their heads off " — and males, too ; 

 perish the thought ! While they had anything to gain 

 from him their m^otto was " Feed the brute " ; but now, 

 on each, doom is pronounced. It must be admitted 

 that a live drone at the end of summer is one of life's 

 failures. Notoriously unable to feed himself save upon 



