THE AMAZONS. 4/7 



had been more courteous and considerate than their vocation of .pro- 

 fessional kidnappers would seem to permit. 



In the neighborhood of Colorado Spring brci'iccps is rare and 

 sporadic, but in the subalpine meadows about Florissant it is as common 

 as the typical rufescens in the meadows on the shores of Lake Leman. 

 The nests of neocinerea in which brericcps lives at Florissant are grass- 

 covered mounds like those of the European glebaria and rubcscens, but 

 larger (sometimes nearly a meter in diameter and 2-3 dcm. high ). On 

 the slopes surrounding the meadows, however, the western amazon 

 also lives in the nests of argcntata, which are usually found under 

 stones or logs. The abundance of these slave-makers at such an alti- 

 tude (2.500 m. ) indicates that they belong to the Canadian zone and 

 that they will also be found in the southern portions of British America. 

 This distribution is significant in connection with their close structural 

 and ethological relationship to the European and probably also Asiatic 

 rufescens. 



(b) Poly erg us bicolor. This subspecies was simultaneously dis- 

 covered by Father Muckermann at Prarie-du-Chien, Wis., and myself 

 at Rockford, 111., and has not been recorded from any other localities. 

 It is closely related to brericcps, but differs in its smaller size and in 

 having the gaster of the worker and female black, instead of red, like 

 the remainder of the body. We may therefore call it the black and 

 red amazon. Like breviceps it often forms rather large colonies and 

 its slave (F. subcenescens) is closely allied to the typical European 

 fitsca and gagatcs. F. subcenescens, according to my observations, 

 occurs only in rich, shady woods, and prefers to nest in logs or stumps 

 so rotten as to be easily broken apart. The six colonies of bicolor 

 which I have found in widely separated localities near Rockford, were 

 all in such logs or stumps in shady spots where the undergrowth had 

 been removed. The average ratio of bicolor to subcenescens workers 

 in the mixed colonies was at 1:3. The following notes were made 

 on a single colony of these ants late in July and early in August, 

 1902: 



Tuly 24, 2 P. M., I came upon a troop of about 300 bicolor in the 

 act of pillaging a rather large subcenescens colony that was nesting in 

 a small rotten stump under some hickory trees. The stump was cau- 

 tiously broken open and the bicolor were seen rushing about the gal- 

 leries, biting the shining, black subcenescens, or even the bits of wood 

 in a kind of insensate " Mordlust." The subcenescens seemed to be 

 more dismayed than injured. The bicolor seized the larvae and pupae 

 with tremulous eagerness and began to leave the nest. Soon the who! 

 troop, laden with booty, was under way, in an open phalanx, threading 



