st, that the bees free
themselves of the males. Then they are drove away and pursued to the
inmost parts of the hive, where they collect in numbers; and as at the
same time we find many dead drones on the ground before the hives, it is
indubitable that after being expelled, the bees sting them to death.
Yet on the surface of the comb, we do not see the sting used against
them; there the bees are content to pursue and drive them away. You
observe this, Sir, yourself, in the new notes added to _la Contemplation
de la Nature_; and you seem disposed to think, that the drones forced to
retire to the extremity of the hive, perish from hunger. Your conjecture
was extremely probable. Still it was possible the carnage might take
place in the bottom of the hive, and had been unobserved, because that
part is dark, and escapes the observer's eye.

To appreciate the justice of this suspicion, we thought of making the
support of the hive of glass, and of placing ourselves below to see what
passed in the scene of action. Therefore, a glass table was constructed,
on which were put six hives with swarms of the same year; and, lying
under it, we endeavoured to discover how the drones were destroyed. The
invention succeeded to admiration. On the 4 of July, we saw the workers
actually massacre the males, in the whole six swarms, at the same hour,
and with the same peculiarities.

The glass table was covered with bees full of animation, which flew upon
the drones, as they came from the bottom of the hive; seized them by the
antennae, the limbs, and the wings, and after having dragged them about,
or, so to speak, after quartering them, they killed them by repeated
stings directed between the rings of the belly. The moment that this
formidable weapon reached them, was the last of their existence; they
stretched their wings, and expired. At the same time, as if the workers
did not consider them as dead as they appeared to us, they still stuck
the sting so deep, that it could hardly be withdrawn, and these bees
were obliged to turn upon themselves before the stings could be
disengaged.

Next day, having resumed our former position, we witnessed new scenes of
carnage. During three hours, the bees furiously destroyed the males.
They had massacred all their own on the preceding evening, but now
attacked those which, driven from the neighbouring hives, had taken
refuge amongst them. We saw them also tear some remaining nymphs from
the combs; the