448 MR. T. А. DYMES ON THE 
were ants on it and under it and all round it: this was about 7.45 A.M., and 
at 8 o'clock I went to look at it again, but there was no trace of it to be 
seen—it had vanished. It had begun to rain again, and, while I attributed 
the disappearance of the ants, erroneously as T now believe, to the weather, I 
was at a loss to account for the seed-mass, 
The next chance that I had was on July Isth ; by this time there was only 
one mass left upon the plant, but T had several in reserve, and was keeping 
them as fresh as T could in а damp box. T put down the fresh mass and 
seleeted the one with the whitest strip from the box ; both were placed about 
two inches from the entrance. There were only a few ants about, but in a 
few minutes each of them had its own visitors, and the fresh one was alive 
with them; about half an hour later it had completely disappeared, and I 
began to suspect the truth. 
Just then I could not watch, зо I removed the other mass and replaced it 
in the afternoon: it was attacked again at once, and this time I meant to see 
what happened, and, at last, after it had been there for the better part of an 
“hour and T felt quite sure what the ants were about, D saw it disappear into 
the nest. It required some doing, but by dint of pulling and shoving, it 
quickly vanished, when once the ants got it into position. 
After my supply of fresh masses eame to an end, Г tried the ants on several 
occasions with stale ones, fragments, and loose seeds, equally stale or staler, 
with the result that they will carry off the latter, but, so long as they ean 
find any small bits or single seeds they do not trouble about moving the 
masses, unless they be placed close to the entrance of the nest, although they 
nibble away at the faded strip; it almost looks as if they make up their mind 
that the game is worth the candle hefore starting upon the onerous business 
of taking the mass inside. The staleness does not seem to matter, for I have 
seen masses which were more than a fortnight old disappear into the nest ; 
it makes no difference whether the strip be white or brown, dirty or clean, or 
whether the mass be placed with it uppermest or undermost, or in any other 
posture, 
After I had satisfied myself that Donisthorpea nigra will arry the mass 
into its nest, | amused myself in watching their performances when the 
conditions were favourable, and I bad the opportunity. During the after- 
noon of July 31st, when my material was fully a fortnight old and most of it 
some few days older, I gave them several fragments and finally one mass, 
which I was careful to place just two inches from the entrance, with the idea 
of finding out how long it would take them to get it inside. I saw them 
begin to move it and then Г busied myself with removing a few small weeds 
from the gravel-path. During the fortnight that had elapsed since the 15th 
the ants had had most of my fragments and loose seeds, and I found several 
of the latter dropped upon the path, presumably by them. As there are 
several nests this is merely what one would expect. My attention was, 
