1881.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 21 



hurried down the gravel side and started at a swinging pace along 

 the trail to a neighboring oak copse. An hour afterward she had 

 not returned, and not another ant had left the ne^t. Several, 

 howcA^er, came out, hut apparently were disturbed by a gale which 

 followed the rain, and returned. 



On another occasion, the slight disarrangement of the nest 

 made bj'^ the rain was repaired immediately after the storm. It 

 amounted to a closing up of the greater part of the entrance by 

 some of the displaced gravel-stones along the crater. 



The exterior architecture has been referred to as a small 

 mouudlet of gravel.^ The largest seen was one on one of the 

 ridges quite within the Garden ; it measured arouhd the base 

 thirty-two inches, in height three and one-half inches, length of 

 northern slope four and one-half inches (PI. II, fig. 3). The 

 average dimension of the nests is something less than this. The 

 base diameter varies from ten to three and one-third inches, 

 the greatest number of nests measuring six and seven inches.^ 

 The ordinar}- height is from two to three inches. The shape of 

 the nests is a truncated cone. The section across the top is about 

 two inches in diameter. In the centre is a tubular opening or 

 gate, fiom three-fourths to seven-eighths inch in diameter .^ 



III — Position or Honey-Bearers in the JsTest. 



Leaving the details of the architecture to a later period, that habit 

 which attaches the greatest interest to this insect, viz. , the storing of 

 honey, may be considered. The first nest that was opened, and 

 called the " Bessie " nest,^ for convenience of notation, is on the 

 terminal slope of Adams' ridge, looking due south, and quite near 

 to the valley of the creek Fontaine qui Bouille. The gravel had 



^ Dr. Oscar Loew, "American Naturalist," 1874, says of Melligera col- 

 lected near Santa Fe, that "they make no hills, like other ants." "A 

 structure like a crater indicates where they live underground." Every 

 formicary seen by me had a decided elevation. 



^ I succeeded in bringing one of these mounds home nearly entire, having 

 fixed the gravel contents by liquid cement. 



* Dr. Loew says of the nests near Santa Fe, that the openings were the 

 size of a quill. It seems strange that such a difference should exist within 

 localities so near each other. 



* A little girl, Bessie Root, a guest in Gen. Adams' cottage, whom I had 

 enlisted in the search for ant-hills, first reported to me the nest in which I 

 found the ^lelligers. 



