36 AUSTRALASIAN 



southern tributary of the Danube. Attention was first called 

 to the qualities of this race, as we are informed by the British 

 Bee Journal, by Mr. Edouard Cori, of -Bohemia, who calls it 

 the Carniolan or the Ukraine bee. Now the Ukraine is a 

 Russian province on the Dnieper River, more than a thousand 

 miles east of Carniola, with the whole of Hungary, Roumania, 

 etc., lying between. It appears strange, then, that the two 

 names should be connected in this way ; but it will be found 

 that Dr. Gerstaecker has described the German bee as being 

 found also at Dalmatia (a little south of Carniola), and at the 

 Crimea (a little south of the Ukraine) ; and it is evident from 

 all accounts that the Carniolan is only a very slight variety of 

 the German bee, although Mr. Benton implies that it is not. A 

 writer in the British Bee Journal describes it so, and says that 

 " great difficulty is experienced in keeping the Carniolan bee 

 pure, from its resemblance to the common black bee, which 

 renders it difficult to distinguish an hybrid of the two." They 

 are greatly praised for their gentleness and other good qualities. 

 Mr. Benton says they are "the gentlest of bees," that "their 

 gentleness casts that of the gentlest Italians all in the shade ;" 

 that they are even more prolific than the Italians, and are equal 

 to them in honey- gathering qualities and in sticking to their 

 combs and defending their hives (when not queenless) ; while 

 they " are equal to the black bees in comb-building, disposition 

 to enter boxes," etc. Their faults are, considerable disposition 

 to swarm, the same tendency to rob which the black bees show, 

 and that, when queenless, they do not defend their hives as well 

 as the other Eastern bees. Mr. Marshall, the manager of Mr. 

 Neighbour's apiary, says he prefers them to Ligurians, that — 



"They are hardier, and therefore more suitable to our changeable 

 climate. They breed as quickly, are very quiet, and a practised bee- 

 keeper can handle them without smoke or veil, and he very rarely gets 

 a sting. Some of our bee-masters give them the character of being 

 much given to swarming, but I have not found, them more disposed 

 than Ligurians or black3 in that respect. If you want a business bee, 

 get a good English queen mated with a Carniolan drone ; the combi- 

 nation of the two races makes a really useful bee. They are the silver 

 bees, as the Ligurians are called the golden beea. " 



The description of this bee given by a writer in the British 

 Bee Journal is as follows : — 



"In outward appearance the Carniolan bee is Blightly larger than 



