The Family 1 1 5 



to them, as, for instance, in Gay's " Rural Sports " we 



read, — 



"The careful insect midst his works I view, 

 Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew, 

 "With golden treasures load his little thighs, 

 And steer his distant journey through the skies." 



Butler in 1609 knew the sex of the so-called king and 

 says : — 



" Aristotle entreating of the breeding of bees professeth 

 himself uncertain of their sex : and therefore, (willing, in 

 this uncertainty, to grace so worthy a creature with the 

 worthier title) he everywhere calleth their governor, Rex. 

 As many as followed him, (searching no further than he 

 did) were content to say as he said. So that I am en- 

 forced (unless I will choose rather to offend in rebus, than 

 in vocibns) by their leave and thine (learned Reader) to 

 strain the ordinary signification of the word Rex ; and, in 

 such places, to translate it Queen : since the males here 

 bear no sway at all ; this being an Amazonian or Feminine 

 kingdom." 



It is true that Aristode was puzzled about the sex of 

 bees, and that it was nearly two thousand years after 

 his time before the matter was indisputably settled, and 

 yet in his " History of Animals " we read this very re- 

 markable statement. Speaking of the " kings," or " rulers," 

 he says : " By some they are called the mother-bees, as if 

 they were the parents of 'the rest ; and they argue that 

 unless the ruler is present, drones only are produced, and 

 no bees. Others affirm that drones are males, and the 

 bees females." 



Thus in Aristode's time was guessed the truth that the 

 scientists of another age were to demonstrate. 



Young bees are produced from eggs laid by the so-called 

 queen, — a fact not known to the ancients, who had various 



