A BKIEF HISTORY. 11 



vided with a sack, or bag, for honey. Basket-like 

 cavities are on their legs, where they pack the pollen 

 of flowers into little pellets, convenient to bring home. 

 They are also provided with a sting, and a virulent 

 poison, although they will not use it abroad when un- 

 molested, but, if attacked, will generally defend them- 

 selves sufficient to escape. They range the fields 

 for honey and pollen, secrete wax, construct combs, 

 prepare food, nurse the young, bring water for the use 

 of the community, obtain propolis to seal up all crev- 

 ices about the hive, stand guard, and keep out intru- 

 ders, robbers, &c., &c. 



DESCRIPTION OF DRONES. 



When the family is large and honey abundant, 

 a brood of drones is reared ; the number, probably, 

 depends on the yield of honey, and size of the swarm, 

 more than anything else. As honey becomes scarce, 

 they are destroyed. Their bodies are la,rge and rather 

 'clumsy, covered with short hairs or bristles. Their , 

 abdomen terminates very abruptly, without the sym- 

 metry of the queen or worker. Their buzzing, when 

 on the wing, is louder, and altogether different from 

 the others. They seem to be of the least value of 

 any in the hive. Perhaps not more than one in a 

 thousand is ever called upon to perform the duty for 

 which they were designed. Yet they assist, on some 

 occasions, to keep up the animal heat necessary in 

 the old hive after a swarm has left. 



MOST BROOD IN SPRING, 



In spring and first of summer, when nearly all the 



