20 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. i. 



From the lime's leaf no amber drops they steal, 

 Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal : 

 On others' toils, in pampered leisure, thrive 

 The lazy fathers of the industrious hive. 

 Yet oft, we 're told, these seeming idlers share 

 The pleasing duties of parental calre, 

 With fond attention guard each genial cell, 

 And watch the embryo, bursting from its shell." 



But Dr. Evans had been " told " what was not correct 

 when he sought to dignify drones with the office of 

 " nursing fathers " (" brood bees " as the Germans used 

 to call them), for that task is undertaken by the younger 

 of the working bees. Nor are they even utilised in 

 maintaining warmth, for they are expelled just at a time 

 when warmth is most required. No occupation falls to 

 the lot of the drones in gathering honey, nor have they 

 the means provided them by Nature for assisting in the 

 labours of the hive. They are the progenitors of working 

 bees, and nothing more ; so far as is known, that is the 

 only purpose of their short existence. 



In a well-populated hive the number of drones is com- 

 puted at from one to two thousand. " Naturalists," says 

 Huber, " have been extremely embarrassed to account 

 for the number of males in most hives, which seem only 

 a burden to the community, since they appear to fulfil 

 no function. But we now begin to discern the object 

 of Nature in multiplying them to such an extent. As 

 fecundation cannot be accomplished within the hive, 

 and as the queen is obliged to traverse the expanse of 



