§ v.] THE ITALIAX OR LIGURIAN BEE. 39 



and the southern Grisons.* It thrives up to the height 

 of 4,500 feet above the level of the sea, and appears to 

 prefer tlie northern clime to the warmer, for in the 

 south of Italy it is not found. The Alps are their native 

 country, therefore they are called Yellow Alp or tame 

 house bees, in contradistinction to the black European 

 bees, which we might call common forest bees, and 

 which, on the slightest touch, fly like lightning into your 

 face. [?] 



" As all good and noble things in the world are more 

 scarce than common ones, so there are more common 

 black bees than of the noble yellow race, which latter 

 inha,bit only a very small piece of country, while the 

 black ones are at home ever5rwhere in Europe, and even 

 in America." 



Our own experience with the Italian bee enables us 

 to corroborate the statements which have been made in 

 its favour. We find the queens more prolific than those 

 of the common kind, and the quantity of honey pro- 

 duced is greater. These two facts stand as cause and 

 effect : the bees being multiplied more quickly, the store 

 of honey is accumulated more rapidly, and the Italian 

 bees consume, if anything, less food than the common 

 kind. When of pure Italian blood these bees are, by 



" Otherwise Tessin, Veltlin (French Valteline), and the southern 

 Graubiinden. Von Berlepsch names the localities they inhabit as 

 Genoa, Venetia, Lombardy, and the southern valkys of the Grisons 

 ■ bordering upon Italy. 



