and its Economic Management. 37 



The advantages claimed for Ligurians are as follows : They are 

 more prolific, and consequently gather more honey than blacks, 

 more especially as they can work upon some flowers not accessible 

 to the others, and continue to gather until Autumn is well 

 advanced. Strange to say, natives often do best early in the 

 season, but in Autumn I have known Italians draw out founda- 

 tion rapidly and store heavily, while at the same time the former 

 would not attempt to work upon a sheet of foundation placed in 

 the centre of the brood nest. The Italians are more gentle, and 

 together with their beautiful markings, this has done much to 

 make them popular. 



They are considered to be an all-purposes bee, but their comb- 

 honey is not quite so good as that of the native kind ; they are 

 not equal to the latter as comb-builders, and are often hard to 

 persuade to enter the supers ; while they are quite useless for 

 queen-raising purposes, as often they will start but one or two 

 cells, and of poor quality at that. A mixture of the two races 

 however, as previously stated, will give energetic workers, and 

 there is no doubt that the "leather-coloured" Ligurians mentioned 

 by many Americans as being superior to any, are nothing more 

 nor less than hybrids. 



As with all yellow races, Ligurian workers have three yellow 

 bands on the upper part of the abdomen, beginning at the first 

 segment. Creamy white lines of hair intersect and follow the 

 broader yellow bars, down to the extremity of the body, giving 

 the bee a handsome appearance. The queens vary in colour from 

 dark to light yellow ; while the drones sometimes have patches 

 of yellow on the abdomen, and others are hardly to be dis- 

 tinguished from those of the black kind. 



CARNIOLANS. 



Of all pure races, these are undoubtedly the best "all- 

 purposes " bees known. Scarcely a fault can be found with them, 

 and while they are not quite such good honey gatherers as 



