Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/75

 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, accordingly, Feburier 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 consequence 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 intentions towards them; and the unfortunate victims, as if to derive consolation from one another's society, or perhaps driven together by their irascible superiors, may be seen about that period clustering closely together in some corner of the combs, where they remain without motion, and without once venturing