The history of four-footed beasts and serpents describing at large their true and lively figure, their several names, conditions, kinds, virtues ... countries of their breed, their love and hatred to mankind, and the wonderful work by Edward Topsell ; whereunto is now added, The theater of insects, or, Lesser living creatures ... by T. Muffet ...

CHAP. VII.

Of Drones and Theeves.

THE Drone called in Latine, Fucus, is called in Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the Illyrian tongue, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; in English, a Drone, a Dran; in High Dutch, Traen; Low Dutch, Belonder strael; in Spanish, Zangano; in Italian, Ape che non fa mele; In French, Bourdon, and Fullon; in the Hungarian tongue, Here; in the Polonian, Czezew. The word Fucus, a Drone, is derived as some think from fur, which signifies a thief, because privily and by stealth he makes prey upon the honey: although with more probability the word fucus may be so used, because he doth cheat and cousen the Bees, and under colour of keeping the Hives warm, (which is his office to do) he ransacks the combs. And for that reason, some with too much confidence, perhaps, derive the La∣tine word fucus from the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, signifying to eat or devour; others will have it come à fovendo, in regard of their sitting upon, and nursing up the young swarm.

Some make the Drone to be a fourth sort of Bees, but not so well as others think, because he neither gathers honey himself, nor doth any way help in the working or making of it up. He is * 1.1 almost twice as big as the ordinary Bee, and somewhat bigger also then the Thief; he is as big likewise as the King, and somewhat bigger. Although they do not arrive at this corpulency, by the dispensation of nature, but by their course of life that they take. For when the Bee doth set apart cells for the Drones to breed in, they make them lesser then their own. And the little Scha∣dowes or worms whereof they come are far lesse than those of the Bees (who are sprung of the no∣ble race, and of the stock of the Bees) in their first birth; which at length become a great deal bigger than the Bees, both by reason they never take any pains whereby to spend their natural su∣perfluities; and also in regard that they do nothing night and day but (like oxen at the stall) ne∣ver leave glutting and gorging themselves with honey, which afterwards they dearly pay for, when provision happens to be short, and there fals out a dearth. They have a bright shining co∣lour, * 1.2 but mixt with more black than that of the Bees; in bulk they exceed them all, but yet with∣out sting and idle. They both breed and live amongst the Bees, and when they go abroad, they presently spread all abroad aloft in the air, as if driven by violence, where for a while they bestir themselves, and afterwards return to the Hives with good stomachs, falling greedily to the ho∣ney. But why the Drone should equalize the chief Bees in bigness, and the Bees also in having stings as well as they; let us hear Aristotles reason. Nature did desire, saith he, to put a difference between them, that they should not be all of one kinde, which is impossible; for so the whole Stock would be either Kings or Drones. The Bees therefore are like unto the Kings or Master-Bees in strength, and in the faculty of generation; and the Drones only in bulk or bignesse of body, to whom if you should give a sting also, they would be nothing inferiour to the Kings themselves, l. 3. de gen. Animal. c. 10.

They are called also of the Greeks 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, because they hide their stings. From hence Hesiod, hath these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, who lives idly, having strength like the Drone that never sheweth his sting; certainly either they have no sting, or never use it to revenge themselves withall. Pliny saith plainly they have none, and terms them no other then in a manner imperfect Bees, and therefore Virgil calleth them ignavum pecus, a sluggish kinde of creature.

Suidas calls them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, from hiding their sting. Columella, a sort of creatures of a greater growth, very like the Bees, and accordingly he placeth them in the rank of herding or swarming creatures. They suffer egregiously of the whole swarm many times, not only for their sloth and rapacity; but for that wanting a sting they seem effeminate, and not able to make any opposition. Plin. l. 11. c. 17. describeth them thus: The Drone is an imperfect Bee without a sting; and begotten then after all when the Bee is decayed with labour, not being able to labour any longer. Like as men past their labour, and stricken in age, beget of women when they have well-nigh left teeming through age and weakness, feeble children, uncapable of pro∣creation, little better then eunuchs: so it may not seem strange, how these Drones are too weak and impotent, being begotten of the Bees when they are exhausted with age and labour, insomuch that they are fit neither to propagate their one species, nor to take pains as the other do. Which is the reason why the Bees so lord it over them, for they put them first forth to work, & if they loyter, they punish them without mercy. For in the moneth of June, two or three (especially the younger fry) drag out one Drone by himself alone, buffet him with their wings, gore him with their stings, if he resist them, they cast him down from the form upon the ground, and at length when they have made him weary of his life for anguish, they make an end of him and kill him; this I beheld with mine eyes, not without exceeding admiration and delight. Sometimes the Drones being banisht from the Hive, are fain to remain without doors, not daring to enter. Now for three reasons especially thereunto moving, the Bees do shut out the Drones: either when their number is above measure increased; or when there is not room enough left for the Bees to work in, or else when their honey fails, and they are straightned for want of provision.

And as they bear a deadly hatred against the Drones, so neither will they hurt any man if with his naked hands he shall take the Drones and cast them forth, no although they be in fight.

The Drones, if the King be alive, (as some affirm) are begotten in a place by themselves. But if the King be dead, they are begotten of the Bees in their cells, and those are a great deal lustier than the other, in which regard, they are said to have a sting in their souls, although they are al∣lowed none in their bodies by nature. 'Thus Aelian. lib. 1. de Animal. Hist. c. 10. The Drone * 1.3 which is bred amongst the Bees, lies hid all day between the honey cells; but in the night when he observes that the Bees are gone to their rest and are fast asleep, he sets upon their works and preys upon their Hives. This assoon as they understand (for that most of the Bees being weary with labour fall asleep, and some few watch) when they espy the thief, they moderately and gently chastise him, crop his wings, thrust him out from thence and banish him. But not con∣tent with this punishment, whereby to amend his fault, being naturally possest with two ill quali∣ties, idleness and luxury, he hides himself amongst the combs. But assoon as the Bees are gone forth to pasture, presently he falls upon the works, doth as much as in him lies, gl••••s himself with honey, and utterly ransacks the sweet treasury of the Bees. They coming home again from feeding, as soon as they meet with him, no more favour him as before, with easie stripes, or as if they were about only to banish him again, but setting upon him with their stings they wound the

felon, and no more satisfie themselves with chiding of him, but then he payes for his vora∣city and gluttony with no lesse than his life. This the Bee-masters say and perswade me that it is true.

Drones come forth without a King, the Bees never. For they alwaies descend from Kings. * 1.4 There are that affirm, that the young Drones are brought thither from other places from the flowers of honey-suckles, or of the olive or ••eed: But this opinion is infirm, and doth not stand with reason. Aristotle affirms that the great store both of Drones and Theeves are sprung of the longer and slender kinde of Bees, which doubtlesse he was informed of by the ancient Philoso∣phers, or by Bee-keepers, and Honey-masters of his time. Some likewise say they are ingendred of putrefaction; as of Mules, so Isidore; of Asses, so Cardane; of Horses, so Plutarch and Ser∣vius. Others will have them to be the issue of Bees by a certain degeneration, when they have lost their stings, for then they become Drones, nor are observed to gather any honey, and being as it were gelt of their natural strength, they neither do harm or good. Others on the contrary say, that the Bees are bred of the Drones, because long experience hath taught, that as the num∣ber of Drones aboundeth, by so much every year is the number of the Swarms greater. But that in my apprehension is rather a feigned than a solid reason: for therefore are there not (as some seasonable years it comes to passe) more Swarmes of Bees, because more Drones are bred; but rather on the contrary, because the increase of Bees is more in regard of the clemency of the heavens, and the plenty of mellifluous dews, so from the abundance of superfluous moisture pro∣ceed the greater store of Drones; as the Philosopher hath well collected. Or if we grant them this, that the more the Drones are every year, so the more Bees; yet nothstanding we ought not to conclude from thence, that the Bees should derive their original of being to the Drones, but rather are beholding and indebted to them for their conservation, whilest they at the time of sitting and incubation, by their company do much further the procreation of the Bees; the throng of them (to use the words of Pliny) exceedingly encreasing the vegetative heat, by which they are sooner hatched up.

There are that divide the Drones into Male and Female, and will have them to propagate * 1.5 their species by way of copulation, although (as Athenaeus writes) neither Drone nor Bee were ever seen to couple together. Yet forasmuch as Wasps and Bumble Bees, and all other Hive∣born Insects, are seen sometime (though very seldome) to couple: I see no reason why the mo∣desty of the Bee and of the Drone, whereby they abandon publick scortation and venery, should debar them of the private use of copulation. For they, as the chaster sort of men are wont, do it privately, and do naturally detest the impudence of those that publickly prostitute themselves in the day time, and when all eyes are upon them.

We have told you before in the generation of Bees, that some would make the Bees the male, and the Drones the female.

But when as (about the time of making their honey) they do so sharply punish them after they have cast them out of their Hives, and kill them (such violence which if used to their mothers, would much blemish the virtues of the Bees) I scarse think they are females.

Of what use then are they of in the Hives? is the Drone altogether unprofitable, good for no∣thing, * 1.6 idle, without sting, fit for no service, no way helpful to the publick? More than that, Vir∣gil himself chants it to that effect:

Immunis{que} sedens aliena ad pabula fucus.

The Drone sits free feeding on others food.

Where Festus takes the word in that sense for a slothful, idle, unprofitable creature, void of all imployment, unlesse it be that of theeves and robbers, who take such a course that either they will live by the sweat of other mens browes, or else they will disturb the whole Kingdom. Such like Hesiod makes women to be, when he compares them to Drones.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

Which is, I interpret it in Latine thus:

Qui segnes resident contectis aedibus, at{que} Sudorem alterius proprium furantur in alvum.

Or, in English thus:

Who sit at home, and to work have no will, With others sweat they do their bellies fill.

But more creditable Authors propound divers uses of Drones: for if there be but a few of them amongst the Bees, they make them more diligent and careful in their businesse, not by their example, (for they live perpetually idle) but because they take the more pains in making honey, that they may be able to continue their liberality to strangers. They discover also signs whereby to know when the honey is come to maturity: for when they have perfected their ho∣ney,

then they kill them in abundance, lest they should (as their custome is) rob them of it in the night; for as Aelian saith, the Drone all the day lies quietly in the honey cells, but in the night when he perceives that the Bees are in their dead sleep, he sets upon their works and destroies * 1.7 their combs.

But yet (if Barth••lomaeus deceive us not) they are not unbusied neither; but they build houses for the Kings, large and magnificent in the top and middle part of the Hive very finely covered * 1.8 over. They are therefore idle (to say say with Aristotle) in regard of making honey or gathering dew; but in regard of their Architecture so they are workmen. For as the Bees make the combs of the Drones hard by the Kings Court, so under the same consideration the Drones build the Kings houses, which is the reason why they and their young ones (if they have any) are sustained by the Bees. The cells of the Drones now grown up according to the bulk of their bodies are larger, but their combs lesse, for the Bees built these, but those the made themselves; because it is not fitting that the same proportion of food should be allowed to hindes and hired servants, as to the child••en or masters of the family.

Tzetzes in his elegant Poem, and other of the Greek Poets, make them to be the Bees cellar∣men, * 1.9 or water-bearers, and do assign unto them a most kindly heat whereby they are said to hatch the young Bees and make them thrive. In like manner Columella: the Drones do very much help to breed the young Bees, by sitting upon those seeds out of which they are made. And the••efore they are more familiarly admitted to the nursery to bring up and cherish the young b••ood, which when they have done, afterwards they are thrust out of doors. And Pliny also in his 11. Book. They do not assist the Bees in their Architecture only, but also in cherishing their young, the multitude of them causing heat and warmth, the which the greater it is (unlesse the honey chance to fail in the mean time) the more the swarmes of Bees are increased. To con∣clude, unlesse they had been for some great use for the Bees, Almighty God had never housed them under one roof, nor made them, as it were, free Denisons of the same City. Neither would the Bees lay hands on them at all as enemies of the State, but when their servile multitude doth increase and they take up offensive arms, or scarcity of provision were to be suddenly expected: in which tempest of affairs who would not rather judge that the Carpenter should be dismissed than the Ploughman? especially when without him by reason of want of victuals, we may hazard our lives, but the other we may be without for a time, without prejudice to our lives, and our selves (if need requires) are able to build habitations every one for himself. Now as * 1.10 these, being but a competent number of them, are very profitable to the Bees, so if they be over many, Plato not without cause terms them morbum alvearium, the Pest or Plague of the Hive, in the 8. book of the Common-wealth (where you may see a most elegant comparison between Acolastus and the Drone) both because they waste the provision of the labouring Bees, as also with their too much heat stifle them. This inconvenience the Author of the Geoponicks doth thus remedy; take the covers of the Hives and sprinkle them on the inside over night with water, and you shall finde them betimes in the morning, when you take off the cover of the Hives again all over covered with the Drones; for when their bellies are full of honey, they are very thirsty, and are mightily perplext with an intolerable desire of water; so that they cling fast to the lid of the Hive; and it is an easie matter to put them all to death, or if you will rather to take away the greatest part of them. But if you take away the young ones and all, that are not yet come to have wings, and pluck off their heads, casting the bodies in again to the other Bees, you shall offer to them a very dainty dish.

Moreover also if you shall take the Drone and crop off his wings and cast it back into the Hive, he will if we may credit Pliny, pull of•• all the wings of the rest, lib. 21. c. 11. or rather the Bees themselves will devour the wings of the rest of the Drones that are left. For so saith Aristot. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. For it is not probable that either the Bees should crop one the others wings; or that the Drones should so far adventure, or be able to offer such violence to the Bees: so that as Pliny was mistaken in rea∣ding 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, so also they do not a little speak by guesse, who refer the words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the rest, to the Bees and not to the Drones.

But what the dreaming of Drones doth portend, what use they may be of in the way of Hiero∣glyphicks: let Apomasaris out of the Schools of the Persians and Aegyptians declare. It shall abun∣dantly satisfie for what we intended to speak of them, to shew their true use, true nature, gene∣ration, degeneration, description and name. But as for what belongs to Emblemes and Hierogly∣phicks, and precepts for Manners; every mean capacity may furnish himself with a world of such like rules by observing their course of life; without any need of consulting with those ab∣struse Aegyptian Priests.

The Theeves are thought to be amongst the Bees of a kinde by themselves that are very big, * 1.11 and black, bigger in belly than the profitable Bee, and lesser than the Drone. So called because they devour the honey by stealth. Bees admit of the Drone into their company, and are glad, of it as being helpful to them, for their benefit sometimes. But the Theeves being naturally odious to the Bees, steal upon their labours when they are absent, wasting and spoyling their pro∣vision of honey. Yea they do so glut themselves in the mean while, that they are not able ma∣ny times to get out again they are so full, or to stand in their own defence; whereupon the Bees at their return without any more adoe, severely punish them, and according to their just demerits

kill them outright. Neither do they eat up the Bees food, but also privily lay their young in their cells, whereby it comes to passe oftentimes, that the increase of the Drones and Theeves is no lesse than that of the true legitimate Bees. Now these neither gather honey, nor build houses, nor take any pains, as the other Bees do, for which cause they have watchmen which ob∣serve at night when they come home, and they defend and secure them from the Theeves, and if they spie a Thief come in, they set upon him and beat him, throw him out of doors and there leave him for dead or half dead at least. For so it happens, that the thief having filled himself with honey is not able to fly away, but tumbles up and down at the door of the Hive, till they that go out and in finde him, and having branded him with ignominy and scorn, deprive him of his life.

Aristotle doth not tell us of any office that the Thief is good for: but I think that he was * 1.12 made for this end, namely, that he might put an edge to the courage of the Bees in point of injuries offered them, and that they might be stirred up to more vigilancy and justice: for what use else do Theeves serve for in a Christian Common-wealth, who with incredible fraud lie in wait for the credit and estates of their neighbours.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The descripti∣on of the Drone.
• * 1.2

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Arist. l. 5. c. 22.
• * 1.3

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Arist. l. 9. hist. c. 40.
• * 1.4

  Their Gene∣ration.
• * 1.5

  Plin. l. 11. c. 11.
• * 1.6

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 as the Greeks very many of them have written.
• * 1.7

  l. de Animal. 1. c. 10.
• * 1.8

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.9

  Chil. 8. Hist. 217.
• * 1.10

  Plat. l. 8. de Repub.
• * 1.11

  Arist. l. 9. c. 25. Plin l. 11. c. 17. Aristotle calis fur 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Hesy∣chius 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and from thence I think the Latine name was de∣rived.
• * 1.12

  Their Use.