90 SOME EARLY ENGLISH NATURALISTS 



Among the implements which he recommends to the 

 bee-master is a drone- pot, that is, a weel made of wire, 

 and used like a lobster-pot. The drone-pot is set at 

 the door of the hive, and is so constructed that the 

 drones can enter it, but cannot leave it again. In this 

 way drones can be caught and killed, whenever it is 

 necessary to prevent waste of the store of honey.^ 



Butler, being master of the art of music, as of many 

 other arts, attempts to set down the song of the bees 

 when busy in their hive. He tells us that he pricked 

 down the bees' music with the help of a wind-instrument, 

 but confesses that his dull hearing could not perfectly 

 analyse the confused noise of the buzzing bees, and that 

 he was obliged to make out the conclusion as best he 

 could. He assigns the treble part to the princesses, the 

 bass to the queen, and tries to show how the inner parts 

 are supplied. The glee in four parts and triple time, 

 which he prints as the Bees' Song, must not, of course, 

 be taken for a real transcription of the sounds of the 

 hive ; it would be as reasonable to believe that the bees 

 composed the verses to which the song is set. In the 

 engraved music the bass and counter-tenor parts are 

 printed upside-down, so that four singers, each holding 

 his own corner of the book, may sing away together. 



Bees may be seen, says Butler, to blow liquid wax 

 from their mouths. Sometimes they do it in such a 

 hurry as to drop the wax in the form of loose white 

 scales on the stool or the " skirts " of the hive ; these 

 scales, when warmed, can be kneaded into pellets. 

 Butler was on the way to discover how wax is secreted, 

 but was too impatient to work the matter out properly. 



The hexagonal cells (Butler does not call them hexa- 

 gonal, but six-square, a convenient English word, which 



'Pp. 47, 66. 



