THE BEE. 



as if the workers did not feel sufficiently certain of their fate, 

 they continued to pierce their bodies with their stings, and often 

 drove these formidable weapons in so deep that they could 

 only extricate them by unscrewing them in the manner already 

 described (126). 



The next day they resumed their observations, when a most 

 curious spectacle presented itself. During three hours they saw 

 the massacre of drones, which had been resumed with the same 

 fury, continued. On the preceding day they had exterminated 

 all the drones of their own hives ; but this time their attack was 

 directed against those of neighbouring hives, which, having fled, 

 had taken refuge in these, after the massacre of the preceding day 

 had been concluded. 



Not content with this complete extermination of the drones 

 themselves, the workers resorted to the cells in which drone 

 nymphs were contained, which had not yet completed their final 

 transformation. These they pitilessly dragged forth, killed, 

 sucked the juices contained in their bodies, and then flung the 

 carcasses out of the hives. 



148. It was also ascertained by Huber, that in hives deprived of 

 their queen, or in which the queen, by reason of retarded fecunda- 

 tion, only laid drone eggs, no massacre ever took place. In such 

 hives the drones not only find a sure refuge, but are carefully 

 nurtured and fed. 



This circumstance, combined with the fact that the massacre 

 never takes place until after the swarming season is over, seems to 

 indicate the functions of the drones. They are useful only where 

 candidates for the royal nuptials are likely to be wanted. 



149. The most interesting class of the bee community is also that 

 which is by far the most numerous, the workers. Indeed, to this 

 class all others must be regarded as subordinate, just as in human 

 societies all are dependent on the producing classes. Much 

 respecting their character, habits, and manners, in relation to 

 the care of their young, and the construction of the city, in a 

 word in respect to their internal labours, has been already 

 explained. Something now must be said of their external 

 industry, directed to the collection of provisions for the com- 

 munity, young and old, and of the materials necessary for the 

 prosecution of all their various works, labours which have been 

 illustrated by Professor Smyth in the following beautiful lines : 



' ' Thou cheerful bee ! come, freely come, 

 And travel round my woodbine bower ; 

 Delight me with thy wandering hum, 

 And rouse me from my musing hour. 

 76 



