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 1s a 
Russian province on the Dnieper River, more than a thousand 
miles east of Carniola, with the whole of Hungary, Roumania, 
etce., 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 
“oreat 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 yreatly 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-gatheriny 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 blacks 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 bees.” 
The description of this bee given by a writer in the British 
Bee Journal is as follows :— 
‘‘In outward appearance the Carniolan bee is slightly larger than 
