382 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



yet in those where the queen only lays male eggs they are suffered to re- 

 main unmolested ; and in hives deprived of their queen, they also find a 

 secure, asylum. 1 



What it is that, in the former instance, excites the fury of the bees 

 against the males, is not easy to discover ; but some conjecture may 

 perhaps he formed from the circumstances last related. When only males 

 are produced by the queen, the bees seem aware that something more is 

 wanted, and retain the males ; the same is the case when they have no 

 queen ; and when one is procured, they appear to know that she would 

 not profit them without the males. Their fury then is connected with 

 their utility : when the queen is impregnated, which lasts for her whole 

 life, as if they knew that the drones could be of no further use, and would 

 only consume their winter stores of provision, they destroy them ; which 

 surely is more merciful than expelling them, in which case they must in- 

 evitably perish from hunger. But when the queen only produces males, 

 their numbers are not sufficient to cause alarm ; and the same reasoning 

 applies to the case when there is no queen. 



Having brought the males from their cradle to their untimely grave, and 

 amused you with the little that is known of their uneventful history, I 

 shall now, at last, call you to attend to the proceedings of the workers 

 themselves ; and here I am afraid, long as I have detained you, I must 

 still press you to expatiate with me in a more ample field ; but the spec- 

 tacles you will behold during our excursion will repay, I promise you, any 

 delay or trouble it may occasion. 



When I consider the proceedings of these little creatures, both in the 

 hive and out of it, they are so numerous and multifarious that I scarcely 

 know where to begin. You have already, however, heard much of their 

 internal labours, in the care and nurture of the young ; the construction 

 of their combs ; and their proceedings with respect to their queens and 

 their paramours. It will therefore change the scene a little, if we accom- 

 pany them in their excursions to collect the various substances of which 

 they have need. 2 On these occasions the principal object of the bees is to 



i Huber, i. 199. 



3 The following beautiful lines by Professor Smyth are extremely applicable to 

 this part of a bee's labours : 



" Thou cheerful Bee ! come, freely come, 

 And travel round my woodbine bower ; 



Delight me with thy wondering hum, 

 And rouse me from my musing hour. 



Oh ! try no more those tedious fields, 



Come taste the sweets my garden yields : 



The treasures of each blooming mine, 



The bud, the blossom, all are thine. 



** And, careless of this noontide heat, 



I'll follow as thy ramble guides ; 

 To watch thee pause and chafe thy feet, 



And sweep them o'er thy downy sided : 

 Then in a flower's bell nestling lie, 

 And all thy envied ardour ply ! 

 Then o'er the stem, tho' fair it grow, 

 With touch rejecting, glance, and go. 



