The Figures i, 2, and 3, in Plate L, respectively represent the exterior forms of the queen, the worker, and the drone. They are thus coloured for the purpose of illustrating the Yellow Italian Alp, or Ligurian bee, now deservedly held in such high estimation by bee-keepers, and of whose good qualities we have already remarked. All the bees constituting a stock may not be of quite so bright a colour as those represented: the old bees differ in appearance from the younger ones--darkened bodies and ragged wings, not grey hairs and wrinkled faces, are the signs of old age--so that with bees (especially Italians), as with the gentler sex of the human race, there is appointed a period both of youth and beauty. The anatomical structure of our English bee is the same in kind as that of the Italian;[17] 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 being thus useful, is peculiarly adapted for retaining animal heat.[18] [Footnote 17: 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 18: "Naturalist's Library."] The insect is divided into three parts--the _head_, the _thorax_ or _chest_, and the _abdomen_. [Illustration: Plate II. E. W. Robinson, Delt. et Scp. 1865.] § II. THE HEAD AND ORGANS OF SENSATION. The head of the queen (Plate I. Fig. 1 _c_), as also that of the drone (Fig. 3 _c_), is rounder than that of the worker bee. This last (Fig. 2 _c_) is of a triangular shape, and much flattened, as in 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.