Their Sorts tee. 85 
ginable, what Character thefe Drones main- 
tained in the State; all the Obfervation he 
could -make was this, that the Queen’ keeps 
herfelf retired in’ the upper Chambers’ of 
the Combs, and feldom makes her publick 
Appearance. | 
_ The Learned greatly differ in their Senti- 
ments about thefe myfterious Infects. Some 
late Wiiters, as Butler, Purchas, Warder, 
affirm, the ‘Drones are the Males, and the 
only Males ; and though’ they are not feen to 
engender with the Honey-Bees, yet without 
doubt they are the Male-Bees. 
Other Authors, efpecially the Aucients, 
with fome of the Moderns are as pofitive, | 
that the governing Bees are the Males. 
Thus fome conclude they preferve and 
* propagate their Species by Copulation ; which 
others queftion, and fome pofitively deny: 
And if we admit that the governing~ Bee is 
of the Male Kind, then it is’ moft evident 
and certain that they breed without Co« 
pulation. Since. it is that Bee alone which 
depofits in the feveral Matrixes, or Cells, 
that prolifick Subftance or Matter, which 
after a few Days quickens; appears firft a 
little Worm, and at laft a perfect Bee. 
The Philofopher * fays, it is improbable, 
that fome Bees fhould be Males, and fome Fe- 
_ males: But herein he agrees not with the ge- 
nerally received and prevailing Opinion, that 
G4 the 
* Arif. 
