RACES AND RELATIONSHIPS OF HONEY-BEES. 205 



and occasionally rather more hairy ; the first, and more or less 

 the second, abdominal rings are bronzy-brown-red, or sometimes 

 rusty-red.* By some it is considered a cross-tempered race. 

 Berlepsch says :— " Kiichenmeister thinks that the Cecropean 

 race stands midway between the native (German) and the Italian 

 race of noble colouring, and that it is identical with the one 

 occurring in the Canton Tessin, which is distributed from Mona 

 under the name of Italian. I am inclined to agree with him." 



The Attic bee has a classic as well as a legendary reputation, 

 for, besides being mentioned by Grecian writers, it is said that 

 the Athenians, who were great bee-keepers in olden times, 

 asserted that all bees in the then known world had sprung from 

 Mount Hymettus. It is by no means impossible that this legend 

 is based upon some fact regarding the distribution in a westerly 

 and north-westerly direction, although it is more likely that the 

 original type of the domesticated bee occurred much further east 

 than Greece. 



Besides the four varieties mentioned, I have not the least 

 doubt that there is a far greater number to be found which differ 

 from the ordinary Brown bee in physical or mental characteristics. 

 These will be found in more or less isolated regions, as it is 

 generally acknowledged that isolation frequently produces altera- 

 tions, which may be passed over by ordinary observers, and can- 

 not be determined from dead specimens. 



2. The Egyptian Bee (Apis fasciata). — This is the furthest 

 removed from the brown race of bees. In size it is nearly a third 

 less ; its colour is light, owing to the anterior part of the first 

 three abdominal segments being yellow, and the hair of the thorax 

 and on the posterior margins of the abdominal rings, &c, being 

 light yellow and sometimes whitish; the upper part of the thorax 

 between the wings is also yellow. A mild-tempered race on the 

 whole, but when once excited, a very vicious stinger. 



The extent of its distribution is very considerable, for, be- 

 sides Egypt, it is found in Arabia, Syria, and other eastern 

 countries through the central parts of Asia into China. No 

 doubt, when critically examined, it will be found to vary more 



:;: Berlepsch describes the queen as of ordinary size, and bronze-red to 

 the end of the second abdominal ring, and from there brownish black, just 

 like a poor cross of the native (German) and the Italian race, in which the 

 native blood strongly predominates. 



