POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



717 



out the country, and has been attended by 

 great advantages to the Harvard school. 

 The classes have grown constantly larger, 

 and the quality of the students has im- 

 proved in nearly the same degree. An ad- 

 mission examination was instituted soon 

 after the new course was adopted, and has 

 recently been made considerably more effi- 

 cient. The faculty now find that the three 

 years which are allotted to the course are not 

 enough to permit a thorough mastery of all 

 the branches which it embraces, and contem- 

 plate adding a fourth year. For the present, 

 the additional year will be optional with the 

 student, who may either crowd all he can 

 into three years as before, or take more 

 time for what has hitherto been attempted 

 in that period, and pursue the special 

 studies which are additionally provided for 

 the fourth year. In the schedule of stud- 

 ies under the new arrangement the main 

 studies of the third year are continued into 

 the fourth year, and an examination will be 

 held at the end of the latter year in a num- 

 ber of special branches, the instruction in 

 which is intended to be more clinical and in- 

 dividual in character than that heretofore 

 given and to take the place partly of the 

 private teaching which American students 

 have heretofore sought in European schools 

 after graduation. 



The Cutting Ant. The Rev. H. C. Mc- 

 Cook, of Philadelphia, has made a very in- 

 teresting study of the cutting or parasol 

 ant (Alia fervens, Say), having encamped 

 for the purpose close by its haunts near 

 Austin, Texas. The habitation of the insect 

 was marked by a bed of denuded earth on 

 the prairie, measuring in the case of the one 

 specially examined eight feet nine inches by 

 about seven feet. Over this denuded surface 

 were scattered between twenty and thirty 

 circular, semicircular, and S-shaped eleva- 

 tions of fresh earth-pellets, the circular ones 

 resembling a spittoon three or four inches 

 high, which had apparently been formed by 

 the accumulation of the pellets of sandy 

 soil as they were brought out and dumped 

 upon the circumference of the heap. No 

 life was noticed around the colony during 

 the day, but earthen knobs or warts, and 

 small, irregular heaps of dry leaves, bits 

 of leaves and twijrs were noticed scattered 



over the surface. As evening began, the 

 scene was wholly changed. " Hosts of ants 

 of various sizes, and in countless numbers, 

 were hurrying out of open gates into the 

 neighboring jungle, and two long, double col- 

 umns were stretched from the bottom to the 

 top of the large overhanging live oak. The 

 ants in the descending columns all carried 

 above their heads portions of green leaves, 

 which waved two and fro and glanced in 

 the lantern-light, giving to the moving col- 

 umn a weird look as it moved along. It 

 seemed like a procession of Liliputian Sab- 

 bath-school children bearing aloft their ban- 

 ners. It is this habit which has given this 

 insect in some quarters the popular name of 

 the ' parasol ant.' It is also called in Texas 

 the ' Brazilian ant,' but is quite universally 

 known as the ' cutting ant,' certainly a most 

 appropriate name." The heaps of leaves 

 and twigs lying around the habitation were 

 the closed gates. The opening and closing 

 of these gates occurred before and after 

 every exit from the nest. The process was 

 a long, careful, and complicated one, the 

 opening beginning toward evening, and the 

 closing ending in the morning, sometimes 

 as late as half-past ten. Toward dusk, the 

 minims, or smallest ants, would appear, tak- 

 ing away from the heap particles of sand ; 

 larger forms followed carrying away bits of 

 refuse, which they dropped at about two 

 inches from the gate. Finally, the throng 

 would rush out, bearing before them the rub- 

 bish, which after a few moments was cleared 

 away from the gallery and spread around 

 the margin of the gate. The litter thus taken 

 away was brought into use again when the 

 gates were closed. In closing the gates, the 

 larger forms did their work first, bringing 

 in twigs, some as long as an inch and a half, 

 and dried leaves, which they deposited to 

 the depth of from a half-inch to an inch and 

 a half below the surface. As the hole was 

 gradually closed, only the smaller forms 

 appeared, and the last touches were care- 

 fully and delicately made by the minims, 

 which filled in the remaining interstices 

 with minute grains of sand. A division of 

 labor was noticed in the work of cutting 

 and carrying the leaves. The party con- 

 sisted of soldier-ants, seeming to act as 

 escort and scouts, the cutters, and the car- 

 riers, who took the cut leaves from the base 



