THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



goes specialization in structure, and in 

 this case what do we find? While in 

 the first case slave making habits are 

 earl_\- developed and the nest making 

 habit is in its most primitive form, we 

 find ants with jaws equally fit for fight- 

 ing and working, and a short pupa pe- 

 riod. In the second case, the jaws, al- 

 though still a useful pair of forceps for 

 working, arc much better instruments 

 for fighting. The pupa period, although 

 short as compared with that of the next 

 stage, is somewhat lengthened over 

 that of the first in correspondence with 

 the decreased labor it has to undergo 

 and the decreased danger it is under. 

 In the extremest cases of the third 

 division, the jaws are utterly useless 

 for eating, not to speak of working. 

 Everything in the nest is done by 

 slaves. The period of pupation is elon- 

 gated to its utmost, as there is no need 

 for speed in attaining the self protect- 

 ing age or for working. 



The intelligence, however, would 

 seem to be greatest in the first variety 

 of ant, as there is more need for the ca- 

 pacity of being able to modify actions 

 by conditions. The idiocy of the highly 

 developed ant who will die of starva- 

 tion in the midst of plenty is to be con- 

 trasted with the easy way in which the 

 more primitive ants will surmount the 

 obstacle. While the colonies of the 

 lowest ants are absolutely self-suffi- 

 cient, this self-sufficiency is practically 

 entirely lost in the highest species. In 

 short, ants vary in their architecture, 

 structure and habits to an almost incon- 

 ceivable extent, considering the fact 

 that they are among the last of insects 

 to appear, and these variations arc all 

 correlated zvith one another. 



Observations in Delaware Peninsula. 



BY S. PRANK AARON, CORRESPONDING 



MEMBER NO. 2085 OF Till' AGASSIZ 



ASSOCIATION-, REDDEN, DEL. 



I am down here in the Delaware 

 Peninsula for a short time and have 

 been much interested in making ob- 

 servations of bird life. The pine and 

 deciduous woods here are very dense, 

 the large timber mostly cut out and 

 small trees, largely sweet gum, coming 

 up very thickly and the undergrowth 



is everywhere crowded with smilax or 

 greenbrier. This makes a splendid 

 bird cover both in winter and summer, 

 the densest portions rarely knowing 

 intrusion by man and offering ready 

 means of escape from hawks and owls. 

 Only the abundant black snake inter- 

 feres with the bird life considerably. 

 Man}- birds that winter here also breed 

 here, as distinguished sometimes by 

 peculiar songs and notes or by habits. 

 Of course the juncos, the winter wrens, 

 the kinglets and the fox and white- 

 throat ed sparrows disappear to the 

 North with the coming spring, the 

 juncos being the last to leave. But 

 individual black-capped titmice, crest- 

 ed-titmice, chewinks, (called here 

 swamp robins) song sparrows and car- 

 dinal red birds remain here through- 

 out the year as, of course, do the bob 

 whites. Within almost a stone's throw 

 from our house a cardinal makes his 

 home and I am reasonably sure that 

 his more modestly clothed wife does 

 also; within a pine and brush thicket 

 of several acres in extent and I think 

 they do not range two hundred yards 

 away from it. The male has a peculiar 

 song, the last line of which having 

 two distinct syllables, both of falling 

 inflection. The cardinal's song is al- 

 ways of two lines, the utterances of the 

 first having notes of rising inflection, 

 the latter utterances of falling in- 

 flection, often of two syllables, but 

 I have never before heard, though fam- 

 iliar with the bird almost ever since 

 I knew what birds are. the notes ut- 

 tered like this. The ordinary song may 

 be expressed : 



"What? what? what? what? 



Cheer' cheer' cheer' cheer'," 

 or varied to : 



"What? what? what? what? 



Some cheer', some cheer', 



some cheer'," 

 but this bird sings very clearly : 



"What? what? what? what? 



Stair door', stair door', stair door'." 

 All last summer he sang this, in late 

 fall he thus saluted a particularly fine 

 day. In early February (hiring the 

 warm days of a big thaw he let out 

 a few of the same notes and now, in 

 March, he is at it every day. 



