34 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



I was first made aware of the fact that I was 

 approaching a colony, by seeing a group of ants 

 gathered round the dead body of one of their fellows. 

 The living ants, by the action of their antennae, 

 seemed to be holding a consultation over their dead 

 comrade, and after due consultation, the corpse was 

 seized by one of them and carried off to the nest. 



As I got nearer, I found that the approaches to the 

 ant-hill are like the approaches to a great city, well- 

 beaten tracks on which the population were travelling 

 to and from the nest in endless trains. 



Even before I had optical revelation as to the exact 

 whereabouts of the hillock, I was quite certain that I 

 was on the right road, a beaten track about three 

 inches wide which was densely crowded with ants, 

 some homeward bound, while others were making 

 their way outwards evidently in search of provender. 



I noticed too that up and down the tree trunks in 

 close proximity to the nest, trains of ants were 

 moving, always confining themselves to a space about 

 three inches across, until they got amongst the 

 branches, and then they scattered here and there in 

 search of flies or insects of any description : and that 

 their captures were plentiful, was plainly seen by the 

 great number of victims which were being dragged 

 down the trunk. 



The day previous to my visit having been a very wet 

 one, the upper part of the nest appeared quite sodden, 

 and being curious to find how far into the nest the 

 rain had penetrated, I turned over the material with 

 my stick, and found that although the rain had been 

 coming down for something like ten hours at a stretch 

 it had not penetrated more than two inches, and in 

 the chambers below that depth the pupje, or ant-eggs 

 as they are sometimes called, were snugly ensconced, 

 *'dry as a match-stick," as they say here in the 

 north. The wood ants appear to be unerring weather 

 prophets, for long before the appearance of rain 

 they know of its coming, and carry their embryo 

 children down out of harm's way. In fine, warm 

 weather, the pupre will be found close to the surface ; 

 and if one should lay them bare by removing the nest 

 material, the first care of the adult ants is to seize 

 them and carry them away into safety. 



The sense of hearing in F. rufa was here again proved 

 to me, for on clapping my hands loudly numbers of 

 them swarmed from the nest, and creeping up the 

 long grass stood in a defiant position as if expecting 

 the approach of an enemy ; although possibly they 

 might feel as much scared as the inhabitants of a 

 volcanic country, after the first shock of an earth- 

 quake. 



Having given a brief and, perhaps, a weak descrip- 

 tion of a portion of the outside life of my favourites, 

 I shall here leave my readers, promising to trouble 

 them again, by the permission of our worthy Editor, 

 with a few observations on the ants' mode of building, 

 and their life inside their home. 

 Havelock House,- Sunderland. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 

 By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



VANDAL NATURALISTS.- Collectors may 

 be useful contributors to science, or they 

 may be quite the contrary. In some cases the 

 collecting mania is merely a modification of the 

 morbid instinct of the miser, the greed of possessing 

 and hoarding. When thus manifested and applied to 

 botanical or zoological^rarities, serious mischief is 

 perpetrated. The true scientific botanist who comes 

 upon the habitat of a rare plant and desires a 

 specimen, takes the utmost pains to obtain such 

 specimen in such a manner that shall do the smallest 

 possible amount of mischief as regards the mainten- 

 ance and future propagation of the plant in its own. 

 chosen abode. The collecting miser grabs every 

 stalk and root he can reach, exulting in the destructioii 

 which will increase the rarity of his own specimens. 



I was present at an annual conversazione of a North 

 Country Field Club, where a very large collection of 

 birds' eggs were exhibited by a collector who ardently 

 expected much admiration ; but the chairman, a true 

 naturalist, treated both collection and collector with 

 stern justice by publicly and severely reprimanding 

 the self-convicted Vandal, who] was known in the 

 neighbourhood as a ruthless nest-robber and extermin- 

 ator of rare birds. A genuine naturalist requiring a 

 specimen for scientific purposes would take but one 

 egg from the nest, and do this in such a manner as 

 not to scare the parent birds, nor prevent them from 

 hatching and rearing the rest. 



These remarks are suggested by a report of Professor 

 Hillhouse on behalf of the Conference of Correspond- 

 ing Societies to the British Association, section D. 

 Referring to the disappearance of Native plants from 

 their local habitats in Scotland, he states Ihe melan- 

 choly fact, that eighty-five flowers are "practically 

 extinct," and especially notes that the white water- 

 lily (Ayinp/icca alba) has been almost exterminated 

 from the lochs about Dumfries ; and that the name 

 of the delinquent who committed the ravages has 

 been brought before the local Natural History Society. 

 By means of an appeal from the Society to the 

 owners, the exterminator has been warned off in 

 time. 



Other cases of extermination are mentioned, in- 

 including those caused by the abuse of exchanging 

 clubs, which offer strong temptations to ruthless 

 botanical vandalism. 



True and Spurious Technical Education. — 

 In Mr. R. Bannister's first Cantor Lecture on our 

 milk, butter, and cheese supply, recently delivered 

 before the Society of Arts, the following facts are 

 stated : Denmark, which twenty years ago exported 

 bad butter of ^420,000 annual value, last year ex- 

 ported excellent butter of the value of ;[{^2,6oo,ooo 

 which represents a sixfold increase. The improve- 



