Certainly the bees are partially of an orange or golden colour, and if one could believe the golden anticipations indulged in by M. Hermann respecting them, these would be sufficient to identify the Italian bee as the species described by Hood in "Miss Kilmansegg"--those which dwelt in "A golden hive, on a golden bank, Where golden bees, by alchemical prank, Gather gold instead of honey." In the pamphlet referred to, M. Hermann gives the following description of what he insists on designating as _Apis helvetica_: "The Yellow Italian Alp bee is a mountain insect; it is found between two mountain chains to the right and left of Lombardy and the Rhetian Alps, and comprises the whole territory of Ticino, Val Tellina, and the southern Grisons.[9] It thrives up to the height of 4,500 feet above the level of the sea, and appears to prefer the northern clime to the warmer, for in the south of Italy it is not found. The Alps are their native country, therefore they are called Yellow Alp or tame house bees, in contradistinction to the black European bees, which we might call common forest bees, and which, on the slightest touch, fly like lightning into your face.[?] [Footnote 9: Otherwise _Tessin_, _Veltlin_ (French _Valteline_), and the southern _Graubünden_. Von Berlepsch names the localities they inhabit as Genoa, Venetia, Lombardy, and the southern valleys of the Grisons bordering upon Italy.] "As all good and noble things in the world are more scarce than common ones, so there are more common black bees than of the noble yellow race, which latter inhabit only a very small piece of country, while the black ones are at home everywhere in Europe, and even in America."