The anatomical structure of our English bee is much the same as that of the Italian;[6] a description of the one will therefore serve for the other. The most apparent difference consists in the colour. The English bee is of a blackish brown; both varieties have their bodies wholly covered with close-set hairs. These hairs deserve particular attention, because, although so small, each hair is _feather-shaped_, consisting of a stem and branches somewhat analogous to the feathers of birds. This form is extremely serviceable to the insect, when revelling in the corolla of flowers, to collect the farina, and, besides thus useful, is peculiarly adapted for retaining animal heat.[7] [Footnote 6: Naturalists consider the Italian bee a very superior race, and that the various organs are stronger and of greater capacity; it is, however, not easy to define the precise anatomical superiority.] [Footnote 7: "Naturalist's Library."] The insect is divided into three parts--the _head_, the _thorax_ or _chest_, and the _abdomen_. The head of the queen (Plate I., fig. 1 _c_), as also that of the drone (Plate I., fig. 3 _c_), is rounder than that of the worker-bee. The latter (Plate I, fig. 2 _c_) is of a triangular shape, and much flattened, as in Plate I., fig. 2* _c_, which shows the side view. In common with other creatures, the head contains the inlet for nutrition, and is the seat of the principal organs of sensation. In the figures before alluded to may be seen the double visual apparatus with which bees are provided. The oval divisions on each side of the head are the two eyes, the secondary organs of vision being the three small eyes on the top of the head, called the _ocelli_. We shall first describe the two larger eyes, which, as seems to be the case with all insects, are immovable, and have neither irides nor pupils, nor eyelids to cover them, but are protected from the dust or pollen of flowers by a number of small hairs, as well as by a horny tunicle, which defends and secures them from injury. The multitude of hexagonal lenses which compose the eye of a bee make it appear, when viewed through a microscope, exactly like honey-comb.[8] A German writer computes that in each eye there are 3,500 lenses. In Plate II., fig. 5 represents three of these hexagonal prisms or lenses, magnified. [Footnote 8: Dr. Bevan.]