THE HONEY-BEE. 
71 
by his loud humming sound. We have said that 
the primary function of the drones is to perpetuate 
the race of Bees by pairing with the Queen, but some 
Naturalists have assigned them a secondary office, 
namely, that of contributing by their numbers to the 
heat of the hive, and thus aiding in bringing the brood 
to maturity. In some parts of the continent, accord- 
ingly, Feburicr tells us, they have received the name 
of Hatchers. There are occasionally found Drones 
of a small size in hives where the impregnation of 
the Queen has been retarded. In such circumstances, 
her instinct, as we shall have occasion to shew in the 
following chapter, is so impaired, that she lays her 
eggs indiscriminately in all kinds of cells, — those of 
males sometimes in the cells of workers. The con- 
sequence is, that these males, when hatched, are 
diminutive in size, having been cramped in their 
growth by the smallness of their birth-place. 
The life of this vir gregis is extremely short ; the 
favoured lover perishes soon after his union with the 
female, and thus anticipates, though only by a short 
period, the destruction which awaits his race. So 
early as the beginning of August, the Bees, as if 
wishing to apply “ the preventive check” to a super- 
abundant idle population, begin to manifest deadly in- 
tentions towards them ; and the unfortunate victims, 
as if to derive consolation from one another’s society, 
or perhaps driven together by their irascible supe- 
riors, may be seen about that period clustering closely 
together in some corner of the combs, where they 
remain without motion, and without once venturing 
