10 
pliky's katueal histoet. 
[Book XI, 
chastised, and on a repetition of the fault, punished with death. 
Their sense of cleanliness, too, is quite extraordinary ; every- 
thing is removed that might be in the way, and no filth is 
allowed to remain in the midst of their work. The ordure 
even of those that are at work within, that they may not have 
to retire to any distance, is all collected in one spot, and on 
stormy days, when they are obliged to cease their ordinary 
labours, they employ themselves in carrying it out. "When 
it grows towards evening, the buzzing in the hive becomes 
gradually less and less, until at last one of their number is to 
be seen flying about the hive with the same loud humming 
noise with which they were aroused in the morning, there- 
by giving the signal, as it were, to retire to rest : in this, too, 
they imitate the usage of the camp. The moment the signal 
is heard, all is silent. 
(11.) They first construct the dwellings of the commonalty, 
and then those of the king-bee. If they have reason to expect 
an abundant season, they add abodes also for the drones : 
these are cells of a smaller size, though the drones themselves 
are larger than the bees. 
CHAP. 11. — DEONES. 
The drones have no sting, ^® and would seem to be a kind of 
imperfect bee, formed the very last of all ; the expiring effort, 
as it were, of worn-out and exhausted old age, a late and tardy 
offspring, and doomed, in a measure, to be the slaves of the 
genuine bees. Hence it is that the bees exercise over them a 
rigorous authorit}^, compel them to take the foremost rank in 
their labours, and if they show any sluggishness, punish them^^ 
without mercy. And not only in their labours do the drones 
give them their assistance, but in the propagation of their spe- 
cies as well, the very multitude of them contributing greatly 
to the warmth of the hive. At all events, it is a well-known 
fact, that the greater"^ the multitude of the drones, the more 
Cuvier says that the three kinds of cells are absolutely necessary, and 
that they do not depend on the greater or less abundance. The king of 
the ancients is what we know as the qmen bee, which is impregnated by the 
drones or males. 
26 This is the fact, but not so their imperfect state. 
27 They do not work, but merely impregnate the queen ; after which 
they are driven from the hive, and perish of cold and starvation. 
^ It appears, as Cuvier says, that the ancients had some notion that the 
swarm was multiplied by the aid of the drones. 
