208 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cross was first naturally brought about I will try to explain 

 further on, but that it is a fact cannot be doubted, since the race 

 has been artificially produced by a cross between these bees. 



Mr. F. W. Vogel, who stands next to Dzierzon among the 

 scientific apiarists of the continent of Europe, published, in 1883, 

 his work on the Honey-bee, wherein he describes the extensive 

 experiments he made by crossing various races by selection. He 

 found that when the Brown and the Egyptian bees were crossed, 

 the offsprings of the first generation exhibited mixed character- 

 istics of both parents ; but in the second generation a true 

 Ligurian race became the result, which remained true to the 

 typical colouring if kept pure. He also found that if Italian and 

 Brown bees were successively crossed that the offsprings would 

 throw back by degrees into either of the characteristics of their 

 original ancestors, and not produce a new race. From this the 

 conclusion has been drawn that the Brown and the Egyptian bees 

 are primary geographical races, and that the Ligurian bee is a 

 secondary race produced by a cross of the two primary races 

 under natural conditions. This secondary race must have origi- 

 nated soon after the contact of the two primary ones in Italy. 



The Brown bee is still found in some parts of Italy, and most 

 likely was the first to be introduced into that country, probably 

 by the Greeks, if not by the Phoenicians. The Egyptian race 

 must have been introduced later, for the banded bee has been the 

 favourite from the earliest historical times, and if it existed in 

 Italy before the brown bee, this race would scarcely have been 

 introduced. Virgil knew of two races, as may be gathered from 

 the following lines of his fourth Georgic. Describing the Kings, 

 he goes on to say : — * 



" The people's looks are different as their King's, 

 Some sparkle bright, and glitter in their wings ; 

 Others look loathsome and diseased in sloth, 

 Like a faint traveller, whose dusty mouth 

 Grows dry with heat, and spits a mawkish froth. 

 The first are best . . . ." 



Why the first are best is not further enlarged upon, but we 

 may suppose that it was practically so in Virgil's time, and that 

 his statement is not the mere expression of an aesthetic fancy. 



* Addison's translation. 



