BOOK XI. X. 24-xi. 27 



However in a wind against them they fly close to the 

 ground, carefully avoiding the brambles. They keep 

 a wonderful watch on the work in hand ; they mark 

 the idleness of any who are slack and chastise thera, 

 and later even punish them with death. They are 

 wonderfully clean : they remove everything out 

 of the way and no refuse is left lying among their 

 work ; indeed the droppings of those working inside 

 are heaped in one place so that they may not have 

 to retire too far, and they carry them out on stormy 

 days and when work is suspended. When evening 

 approaches, the buzzing inside the hive grows less 

 and less, till one bee flies round as though giving 

 the order to take repose with the same loud buzz 

 with which she woke them, and this in the manner 

 of a military camp ; thereupon they all suddenly 

 become quiet. 



They build homes for the commonalty first, and Consinictmi 

 for the kings"^ afterwards. If a specially large " 

 production of honey is expected, quarters are added 

 for the drones as well ; these are the smallest of the 

 cells, but those for the worker-bees themselves are 

 larger. XI. The drones *" have no stings, being so to FuncUonoj 

 say imperfect bees and the newest made, the incom- 

 plete product of those that are exhausted and now 

 discharged from service, a late brood, and as it were 

 the servants of the true bees, who consequently 

 order them about, and drive them out first to the 

 works, punishing laggards without mercy. And 

 the drones are of service to the bees not only in 

 work but also when breeding, as their crowd 



begins to fail in autumn, they are killed and cast out of the 

 colony by the worker-bees. The workers are females not 

 specialized like the queens for reproduction. 



449 



