GENERATION OF ANIMALS, III. x. 



and they are workers inasmuch as they support and 

 feed their children and fathers alike.] " Other facts 

 which fit in well are these : (a) the bees attend upon 

 the kings — because the bees are generated from the 

 kings ; since, if nothing of this kind were the case, 

 the facts about their leadership would be lacking in 

 reason ; (h) they allow the leaders to do no work, as 

 being their parents, and they punish the drones, 

 as being their children, because it is a finer thing 

 to punish children and those who have no function to 

 perform.* The fact that the leaders, though few 

 themselves in number, generate a large number of 

 bees looks like a parallel phenomenon to the genera- 

 tion of hons. Lions '^ to begin with generate five, 

 then fewer, finally one, then none at all. The 

 " leaders " generate a multitude to begin with, and 

 later on a few — these are of their own kind,** and 

 though the brood of these is smaller in number, 

 Nature, because she has taken away from their 

 numbers makes up for it by giving them more in 

 the wav of size. 



This, then, appears to be the state of affairs ^nth 

 regard to the generation of bees, so far as theory can 

 take us, supplemented by what are thought to be the 

 facts about their behaviour. But the facts have not 

 been sufficiently ascertained ; and if at anv future 

 time they are ascertained, then credence must be 

 given to the direct e\idence of the senses more than 



" Part of this sentence is inconsistent with what has 

 already been said about the comparative sizes of the three 

 kinds, and part anticipates what is to be said in the next 

 sentence. 



* I suppose attention should be called to this statement. 



' See ToO a 31 flF, 



^ The statement at 760 a 26 above seems relevant here. 



Si5 



