16 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 
ing a semitransparent or u watery" appearance, which is undesirable. 
They are extremely sensitive, hence easily angered by rough or bun- 
gling manipulators, and when once thoroughly aroused are very ener- 
getic in the use of their stings. These faults have caused a very 
general rejection of Cyprians, especially by those who produce comb 
honey. Even the producers of extracted honey do not seem to have 
learned how to manipulate Cyprians easily and without the use of 
much smoke, nor how much more rapidly they could free their extract- 
ing combs from Cyprian bees than from Italians. Nor have they 
seemed to count as of much importance the fact that Cyprians, unlike 
Italians and German or common bees, do not volunteer an attack 
when undisturbed; that they will, in fact, let one pass and repass 
their hives quite unmolested and even under such circumstances as 
would call forth a vigorous and very disagreeable protest from the 
other races just mentioned. It is to be regretted that there has been 
such a widespread rejection of a race having such important and well- 
established excellent qualities. It would be easier by selection in 
breeding to reduce the faults of this race than to bring any other cul- 
tivated race to their equal in the other desirable points. 
Cyprians are smaller-bodied and more slender than bees of European 
races. The abdomen is also more pointed and shows, when the bees 
are purely bred, three light orange bands on the three segments nearest 
the thorax. The underside of the abdomen is even lighter orange 
colored nearly or quite to the tip. The postscutellum — the small 
lunule-like prominence on the thorax between the bases of the wings — 
is likewise orange colored instead of dull, as in European races. The 
rest of the thorax is covered with a russet-brown pubescence. Cyp- 
rians are the yellowest of the original races, and their bright colors 
and symmetrical forms render them attractive objects. 
Italians.— Through the agency of the United States Department of 
Agriculture bees of this race were introduced direct from Italy in 
1860. There had previously been repeated individual efforts to secure 
Italians bred in Germany, where the race had been introduced some 
years earlier, and a small number of queens had been landed here alive 
in the autumn of 1859, but most of these died the following winter and 
the few remaining alive seem not to have been multiplied as rapidly as 
those obtained in Italy by a purchasing agent of the Department of 
Agriculture and landed here early in 1860. Their good qualities were 
soon appreciated, and they had become well established and widely 
spread long before the Cyprians, imported twenty years later. For 
this reason, together with the fact that they cap their surplus combs 
whiter than some other races and because less skill is required in 
subduing and handling Italians, they have retained their popularity 
over bees which, though better honey gatherers, are more nervous 
under manipulation. Their golden-yellow color has also proved so 
attractive to many that the good qualities of more somber-hued races- 
gentler, better winterers, and better comb builders— have not received 
