HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 61 



bee to withdraw it from the wound, but the act of 

 stinging any animal is generally fatal to itself, tearing 

 out, as it were, a part of the entrails with the sting. 

 These workers may be said to compose the whole 

 community, except in the season of the drones, which 

 hardly lasts four months ; during the rest of the year 

 there are no others found in the hive than workers 

 and the queen. The whole labor of the hive is per- 

 formed by them ; they build the combs, collect the 

 honey, bring it home, and store it up in their waxen 

 magazines ; they take charge of the eggs deposited 

 by the queen, and rear therefrom queens, worker 

 bees and drones ; they remove all incumbrances from 

 the hives, and defend the community against the 

 attack and encroachments of enemies ; they also kill 

 or drive out the drones when their services are no 

 longer necessary: in short, the workers undertake 

 and accomplish everything that is necessary to the 

 welfare of the entire colony, except furnishing eggs 

 to replenish the hive with a succession of young ones 

 to take the place of the superannuated. 



THE DRONE. 



The drones are a species of bees 

 well known ; in fact so distinctive is 

 the name, that it is frequently applied 

 to designate a certain class of man- 

 kind. The drone can easily be dis- 

 tinguished from the worker bee by 

 its greater bulk and clumsy, uncouth 

 appearance ; it is both thicker and longer ; its head 

 6 



