220 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



meet fumbling indexterity with a prompt challenge 

 to war. 



Since the Italian bee was brought to England, 

 some half-century ago, there is no doubt that the 

 original English strain has been greatly modified. 

 Some authorities, indeed, question whether there 

 are any absolutely pure British bees left at all. 

 The golden girdles of the Italian crop up in the 

 most unlikely places, and the foreign blood seems 

 to have got into the race in all but the remotest 

 parts of the country. One must regret, although 

 it is a vain regret now, that these undesirable aliens 

 were ever allowed to set foot on the soil. What- 

 ever naturally survives and thrives in a particular 

 country, must be the most suitable thing for that 

 country; and these southern races of the honey-bee 

 seem to have brought back, to the detriment of 

 our own stock, idiosyncrasies long ago bred out of 

 the native race. Much of the nervous irritability 

 and proneness to disease visible in the honey-bee 

 of to-day is more or less directly traceable to the 

 introduction of foreign blood ; and the grand 

 special advantage of the Italian bee — its much 

 vaunted and widely advertised possession of a 

 long tongue — has proved an entire myth. Num- 

 berless measurements undertaken by our leading 

 scientific apiarians have proved that the Italian 

 bee has a tongue no longer than any other, 

 although most are willing to concede her the 

 possession of a very long and ready sting indeed. 



