66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1881. 



10. That the honey in the rotunds varied in color from a crystal 

 "whiteness to a wine-color. 



Several of the above statements, as has been seen, are without 

 foundation, but the majority of them are confirmed in whole or 

 part b}"^ my observations. 



Wesmael,^ who made his study from specimens sent him from 

 Mexico bj^ the Belgian Envoy, Baron Normann, records his 

 credence of the theory announced by that gentleman, viz., that 

 the honey-bearer elaborates the honey and deposits it in certain 

 reservoirs, analogous to the cells of bees, for the nurture of the 

 formicary. Baron Normann was unable to obtain examples of 

 these reservoirs to send to Europe, or rather failed to do so under 

 the conviction that they would be destroyed during shipment. In 

 point of fact, such reservoirs exist only in imagination. 



One of the most perplexing accounts of the honey-ant is that of 

 Mr. Henry Edwards.^ The statements recorded are made at 

 second hand from the verbal narrative of a Capt. W. B. Fleeson, 

 whose observations were made at or near Santa Fe. They 

 are so extraordinary and contradictor}' of my own experiences, 

 that I am compelled to withhold credence, until some experienced 

 observer shall have corroborated them, a result of which I have 

 little expectation. According to this account, no exterior mound- 

 let surmounts the formicary, but simply two openings into the 

 earth. Within the nest, at a depth of about three feet, "a small 

 excavation is reached, across which is spread, in the form of a 

 spider's web, a network of squares spread by the insects, the 

 squares being about one-quarter inch across, and the ends of the 

 web^ fastened firmly to the earth at the sides of the hollowed 

 space which forms the bottom of the excavation. In each one of 

 the sqiiares, supported by the web, sits one of the honey-making 

 workers, apparently in the condition of a prisoner, as it does not 

 appear that these creatures ever quit the nest." 



But the marvels of this strange story are not exhausted. " The 



1 Bulletin de 1' Acad. Roy. des Sci. et Belles lettre de Bruxelles, Tome 

 V p. 770. PI. XIX, figs. 1-4. 



2 Proceed. California Acad, of Sciences, Vol. V. 1873, p. 72 ; " Notes on 

 the Honey-making Ants of Texas and New Mexico." 



^ Of course, this is pure fiction, as no ant makes a web, or anything that 

 could well suggest one. The cutting ant does make out of fragments of 

 leaves a "comb" of more or less regular cells, resembling the nests of the 

 paper-making wasps. 



