324 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
*’!• That the Italian bees arc less sensitive to cold than tlio 
common kind. 2. That their queens are more prolific. 3. That 
the colonies swarm earlier and more frequently, though of this he 
has less experience than Dzierzon. 4. That they are less apt to 
sting. Not only are they less apt, hut scarcely are they inclined 
to sting, though they will do so if intentionally annoyed or irri- 
tated. 5. That they are more industrious. Of this fact ho had 
but one Summer’s experience, but all the results and indications 
go to confirm Dzierzon’s statements, and satisfy him of the 
superiority of this kind in every point of view. 6. That they are 
more disposed to rob than common bees, and more courageous and 
active in self-defence. They strive on all hands to force their 
way into colonics of common bees ; but when strange bees attack 
their hives, they fight with great fierceness, and with an incredible 
adroitness.* 
“From one Italian queen sent him by Dzierzon, Berlepsch suc- 
ceeded in obtaining, in the ensuing season, one hundred and thirty- 
nine fertile young queens, of which number about fifty produced 
pure Italian progcny.f 
“Busch ( Die Honig-biene , Gotha, 1855) describes the Italian 
bee as follows : ‘ The workers are smooth and glossy, and the 
color of their abdominal rings is a medium between the pale 
yellow of straw and the deeper yellow of ochre. These rings have 
a narrow black edge or border, so that the yellow (which might 
* Spinola speaks of these bees as" vdociorta motiu" — quicker in their motions 
than the cuuuuon bees. 
t “ It is a remurkuhle fact that an Italian queen, impregnated by a common drono 
and a common queen impregnated by an Italian drono, do not produco workers 
of u uniform intermediate cast, or hybrids ; but some of the workers bred from 
the eggs of each queen will bo purely of the Italian, and others ns purely of tho 
common race, only a few of them, Indeed, being apparently hybrids. Borlepseh 
olso had several bastardized queens, which at first produced Italian workers exclu- 
sively, and afterwards common workers ns exclusively. Some such queens pro- 
duced fully threo-fourths Italian workers; others, common workers in tho same 
proportion. Nay, lie states that he had one beautiful orange-yellow bastardized 
Italian queen which did not produce a singlo Italian worker, but only common 
workers, perhaps a shade lighter In color. Tito drones, howovor, produced by a 
bastardized Italian queen are uniformly of the Itnlinn rnco, and this fact, besides 
demonstrating tho truth of Dzlorzon's theory, renders tho preservation nnd per- 
petuaUon of tho Italian race. In its purity, ontirely feasible in any country whore 
they may bo Introduced.” — 8. Waokch. 
