The Life of the Bee 



of abundance, the embarrassing presence 

 in the hive of three or four hundred 

 males, from whose ranks the queen about 

 to be born shall select her lover ; three 

 or four hundred foolish, clumsy, useless, 

 noisy creatures, who are pretentious, glut- 

 tonous, dirty, coarse, totally and scan- 

 dalously idle, insatiable, and enormous. 



But after the queen's impregnation, 

 when flowers begin to close sooner, and 

 open later, the spirit one morning will 

 coldly decree the simultaneous and gen- 

 eral massacre of every male. It regulates 

 the workers' labours, with due regard to 

 their age ; it allots their task to the nurses 

 who tend the nymphs and the larvae, the 

 ladies of honour who wait on the queen 

 and never allow her out of their sight ; 

 the house-bees who air, refresh, or heat 

 the hive by fanning their wings, and 

 hasten the evaporation of the honey that 

 may be too highly charged with water; 



42 



