Chap. Till. HIVE-BEES. 315 



and the pasturage of the district. For example, what a 

 difference in this respect one may perceive to exist between 

 the bees of the Liineburg heath and those of this country ! " 



" Eemoving an old queen and substituting a young 



one of the current .year is here an infallible mode of keeping 

 the strongest stock from swarming and preventing drone - 

 breeding ; whilst the same means if adopted in Hanovei 

 would certainly be of no avail/' I procured a hive full oJ 

 dead bees from Jamaica, where they have long been natural- 

 ised, and, on carefully comparing them under the microscope 

 with niy own bees, 1 could detect not a trace of difference. 



This remarkable uniformity in the hive-bee, wherever kept, 

 may probably be accounted for by the great difficulty, or 

 rather impossibility, of bringing selection into play by pairing 

 particular queens and drones, for these insects unite only 

 during flight. Kor is there any record, with a single partial 

 exception, of any person having separated and bred from a 

 hive in which the workers presented some appreciable differ- 

 ence. In order to form a new breed, seclusion from other 

 bees would, as w r e now know, be indispensable ; for since the 

 introduction of the Ligurian bee into German}^ and England, 

 it has been found that the drones wander at least two miles 

 from their own hives, and often cross with the queens of the 

 common bee. 62 The Ligurian bee. although perfectly fertile 

 when crossed with the common kind, is ranked by most 

 naturalists as a distinct species, whilst by others it is ranked 

 as a variety : but this form need not here be noticed, as there 

 is no reason to believe that it is the product of domestica- 

 tion. The Egyptian and some other bees are likewise ranked 

 by Dr. Gerstacker, 63 but not by other highly competent 

 judges, as geographical races; he grounds his conclusion 

 in chief part on the fact that in certain districts, as in the 

 Crimea and Rhodes, they vary so much in colour, that the 

 several geographical races can be closely connected by inter- 

 mediate forms. 



1 have alluded to a single instance of the separation and 



02 Mr. Woodbury bas published 63 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 

 several such accounts in ' Journal of 3rd series, vol. xi. p. 339. 

 Horticulture,' 1861 and 1862. 



