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Rh slain when the honey harvest runs low, and mean-while they are denied all interests in the business of the colony except that of pensioners upon its bounty. And he, the fortunate one, who lives his life to its fullest measure and becomes queen consort must in the end lose his life for love and die, heartlessly abandoned by her whom he sought and won.

In appearance the drone differs much from the queen and the worker; he is broad, and the rear end of his body is so blunt that it looks almost as if it had been cut off with shears. He is made for a life of idleness; his hind legs bear no pollen baskets, so he could not fetch and carry if he would; his tongue is so short that he must needs eat from honey stored in a cell or be fed by his sisters, since he could not possibly extract nectar from a deep flower; nor is there any occasion that he should hang suspended weary hours for the secretion of wax, since he has no wax glands. His special accomplishment is his buzz, which is of extraordinary calibre and sonorousness. So fierce and loud is this, the song he sings when on the wing, that the novice feels inclined to retreat before him. But this music is undoubtedly meant to attract a queen to his vicinity, and is by no means a sound of menace; he is a burly, good-natured fellow, who is obliged to express himself in this rather coarse song. The term "good natured" is applied to him, not because we are certain that his temper is sweet, but because he has no means of expressing ill temper should he experience it, since niggard nature has given him no sting.