294 HENRY C. MCCOOK. 



effect is at times rather comical to all save the victim. However, I 

 was able to protect myself sufficiently by the use of gloves, and some 

 precautions against the entrance of the irrate creatures under the 

 clothing. I was frequent!}' covered with ants and often \vounded, 

 but was rarely compelled to abandon my observations. I was satis- 

 fied, therefore, that the effect of the fallow ant's "bite" has been 

 exaggei'ated. 



To test it fairly, I uncovered a foot and thrust it against a hill. 

 It was soon black with ants and recalled to my mind Swift's descrip- 

 tion of the little people of Lilliput swarming upon the Man-mountain. 

 I was quite able to endure the pain, but unfortunately for my experi- 

 ment, two musquitoes lit upon and bit the foot just as the ants began 

 to make themselves felt. There was a smarting sensation in the foot 

 for about thirty-six hours, which I credited mainly to the musquito 

 bites, to which my flesh is very sensitive. Several small, scarlet spots 

 somewhat resembling a rash were the only effects of the ant poison, 

 beyond the immediate pain. Such was my experience ; the conse- 

 quences, however, to other persons might have been much more 

 serious. 



Sexes, Cocoons and liarvae.— Among the most interesting points 

 of economy, and which I was most anxious to observe, are the relation 

 of the sexes and the development and care of the young. But it was 

 my misfortune to observe nothing of any importance. Neither male 

 nor female ants were found during the whole week. The males had 

 evidently disappeared for the season, as the pairing of the sexes occurs 

 about the close of June. T am inclined to think that the fertile queens 

 must occupy the galleries beneath the surfice, as the most careful 

 search in many hills failed to discover one. A young queen, however, 

 with the stubs of wings still adhering to the body, was taken by Mr. 

 Kay in the centre of a mound in the middle of February. About the 

 middle of July I have taken the winged queens upon the surface of 

 the hills, where they were being led about under the convoy of a 

 "worker. Other queens were seen conducted into the galleries. I infer 

 that these were recently fertilized queens whom the workers had 

 captured and were conveying home, but I made no examination to 

 confirm the inference. 



Numbers of cocoons were found, and a few small larvae. The 

 former are straw-colored, cylindrical, about a quarter of an inch long, 

 a small black knot of hard, dry matter, apparently excrementitious, at 

 the apex of the abdomen. The cocoons were found massed in cells of 



