But what of the drone? He, as has already been mentioned, is reared in a larger cradle than that of his sisters—save such as are destined to be queens—and for the first three days of his life is fed on “bee-milk” of a special kind and more generous quality than that of his worker—sisters, the Cinderellas of the hive; but this generous diet is diminished at the end of three days, when a mixture of honey and pollen is given him. In about three weeks or rather more he emerges, a great, lazy drone, and for a fortnight more he wanders about the hive alternately soliciting bee-milk from his sisters and helping himself to honey from the comb, and when full to repletion he seeks some snug corner in which to sleep off his surfeit. In due time, however, he ventures abroad, his hour is at hand. He takes his daily flights abroad in search of a mate, returning home early in the afternoon for his rations, being too indolent or too stupid to draw nectar from the flowers for himself. Thus for many days he and his brothers disport themselves in riotous living, till one or other of them attains the end for which he was born; and after a few delirious moments drops earthwards a mutilated corpse. But so far only a part of the story of the drone’s life-history has been told. Though the son of a queen, he has never had a father; and should he ever attain to the dignity of fatherhood his posthumous children are all daughters, most of whom die spinsters within six or seven weeks of their birth, worn out by a life of ceaseless toil and drudgery! The queen, it will be remembered, cohabits with the male but once in her life. The sperm-cells then received are stored in a special receptacle and are released during the passage of the egg down the oviduct. In this act of releasing the fertilizing germs a singular economy is practised. In the case of most other creatures myriads of sperm-cells are released for the fertilization of a single egg, and of these but one can possibly attain its goal, the minute aperture or “micropyle” which is the doorway to the germ liberated, in the form of an egg, by the female. The rest die. In the case of the queen bee but one of these precious sperm-cells is liberated at a time. Hence her prolonged ability to produce fertilized eggs. But eggs destined to produce males, or drones, are never thus fertilized: they are born without the intervention of a father. A queen which has never mated will lay only male-producing eggs. This is an astounding thing, but it is true. No less remarkable is the fact that the sperm-cells should survive in their encapsuled state for periods extending over several years: it seems almost incredible, but it is nevertheless true.