If a piffero strolled through the street, the monotonous drone of his bagpipe was reproduced in most comical imitation; and anon there was a gush of bird-songs, as if a whole aviary were in the vicinity.

Dode, pressing her hands to her ears, heard only the dull drone of their voices.

In the year 845 A.D. two hundred and sixty thousand monks and nuns were made to return to secular life in China, being regarded as mere drones,lazy and useless members of the community.

On man we brutal slaves depend: To him all creatures tribute pays, And luxury employs his days.' 80 An ox by chance o'erheard his moan, And thus rebuked the lazy drone: 'Dare you at partial fate repine? How kind's your lot compared with mine!

Gerarde informs us, "How the idle drones, that have little or nothing to do but eat and drink, have bestowed some of their time in carving the roots of briony, forming them to the shape of men and women, which falsifying practice hath confirmed the error amongst the simple and unlearned people, who have taken them upon their report to be the true mandrakes."

In his ears the clamour of the shipwrecked men upon the decks was only a distant droning, hardly recognised for what it was by him who had not one thought other than to make all possible advantage of every precious instant; and so with the roar of steam from the escape-valves.

The organ had a rather sweet old tone, unlike the nasal and somewhat sanctimonious drone of most melodeons, and Felicia, hungry for the piano that had not been brought to Asquam, almost wished she could buy it.

The whirr of the mowing machine filled the air with a lazy droning.

And as I stood looking about me, I remember that some cruising insect trawled near my ear its lonely drone.

But here, the Waggoner's voice tailed off into a meaningless drone that became merged with the creaking of the wheels, the plodding hoof-strokes of the horses, and Bellew fell asleep.

Talk about "catching a weasel asleep," let me see any of my metropolitan drone friends who can catch a Yankee boy asleep!

ye that count Your years by thousands, and your bosoms robe With all the pageantry of Autumn's gold, And lull your sleep of ages with the wild And murmurous drone of woodland waterfalls, And multitudinous song of windy groves!

Pilgrims with great bundles on their backs stood staring vacantly at the walls or at the sea; monks in long grey cloaks, square hats, and long hair, passed in and out like bees about a hive, and from a distance came a musical drone, the chanting of church services.

The valley was like a great, comfortable, happy cat, and the sounds they heard, all commingling in that pleasing drone, was its drowsy purring.

The woman I observed would seem about to stop, her voice falling away almost to no sound, and the prolonged drone of the chorus dying out, when, as if she had come to life again, she sang out at the top of her lungs, and the ranks again took up their tones.

As the day advanced the sun grew ever hotter; birds chirped drowsily from hedge and thicket, and the warm, still air was full of the slumberous drone of a myriad unseen wings.

Pope's Dunciad, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, and ironic satire on the state of literature under "Augustus" (George II, the "snuffy old drone from the German hive"), brilliantly express this indignation with the intellectual and literary shortcomings of the times.

"For as victory was nighest, While I sang and played, With my lyre at lowest, highest, Right alike,one string that made 'Love' sound soft was snapt in twain Never to be heard again, "Had not a kind cricket fluttered, Perched upon the place Vacant left, and duly uttered 'Love, Love, Love,' whene'er the bass Asked the treble to atone For its somewhat sombre drone.

So, after sweeping the skies fruitlessly with his glasses and listening intelligently to the steady drone, he said, "Yes!"

Butterflies become larger and more abundant, grasses with imposing spread of panicle wave above your shoulders, and the summery drone of the bumblebee thickens the air.

But the big dynamo drowned these little noises altogether with the sustained drone of its iron core, which somehow set part of the ironwork humming.

Far worthier men had vainly sought To win her for herself alone; What potent spell could Love have wrought To draw her to a tactless drone?

The verse-writer who can be snuffed out by the cavils of a tutorial drone, is a poetaster silenced for his country's good.

Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, From the cradle to the grave, Those ungrateful drones who would Drain your sweatnay, drink your blood?"

He thus sinks into a state of apathy, and becomes a useless drone in society or a vicious member of it, if not a feeling witness of the rigor and inhumanity of his country.