1881.] NATrSAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA- 37 



an irregular oval shape ; in length five, three and one-half, and 

 six inches successively (C, D. E), and were of an average width 

 of about four inches, Thev were not boilt upon a level, the 

 origin of C, at h, being three and one-half inches above the 

 middle point of D, and six inches above the termination of E. 

 A side gallery, g g, skirted two of the rooms, and appeared to 

 open upon a fourth chamber at F, which, however, was too 

 much broken in the digging to be identified. Of course, only 

 the floor and part of the side walls of the rooms are shown, 

 but the roofs were vaulted and rough, as already described, 

 and rose to the height of three-fourths to one and one-fourth 

 inches. Within them, clinging to the roofs, were packed the 

 rotunds. The number in each room averaged about thirty ; and 

 as there were at least ten chambers thus occupied, the number of 

 rotunds in the nest was certainly not less than three hundred. Of 

 far the greater proportion of these the abdomens were distended 

 to a perfect sphere. 



The Queen Room. — I had the good fortune to capture the 

 fertile queen of this colony. She was found quite near the 

 extreme end of the formicary, in a nearly circular room four 

 inches in diameter. The series of galleries and honey-rooms 

 which composed the formicary terminated in a single gallery 

 (fig. 22, g g g). about eighteen inches long, three-fourths inch 

 wide and one-fourth inch deep. The gallery sloped sharply with 

 the slope of the hill-side on which the nest was made. Xear the 

 middle part thereof was the queen-room (C), being seventy-two 

 inches from the central gate and twenty-eight and one-half inches 

 below the surface of the hiU. Besides the queen the room con- 

 tained a large number of naked grubs, callows, honey-bearers and 

 workers. It is not improbable that the queen habitually dwelt in 

 or near this room; but it may be that during the successive 

 attacks upon the nest, the workers bore their queen still further 

 and further from the point of danger until the limit was reached. 



Ten inches below the queen-room, the gallery, g g g, was con- 

 tinued until it finally terminated in a small circular chamber (E) 

 or bay on the one side, and on the opposite side a narrow gallery- 

 {t g). which curved upward. This was the end of the formicary. 



costly specimens at the Academy broken in pieces ! It was an act of gross 

 carelessness, which merits this notice, as some specimens brooght home in 

 my trunk survived even the "baggage smashers." 



