OS THE HABITS OF A SPECIES OF AUSTBALIAN ANT. 217 



The following Account of the Habits of a Species of Australian 

 Ant is extracted from a letter from Sydnej^, New South Wales, 

 written by Mrs. Lewis Hutton, and communicated through 

 EoBEET Patterson, Esq., by the Seceetaet. 



[Read April 5th, I860.] 



" One very hot and cloudless day, when not a breath of air stirred 

 the leaves, my eldest boy (four years old), coming up from the 

 beach fatigued and hot, threw himself on a grassy mound near 

 where I was sitting, and remained quietly enjoying the rest and 

 anticipating the pleasure he would have in showing to his sister 

 the pretty shells and corals he had found. I was startled by a 

 sudden scream, such as one only gives when in terrible pain; a 

 snake was my first thought, and in horror I went to the child, 

 but was at once reassured on seeing him covered by ' Soldier 

 Ants,' on whose nest he had unwittingly lain down. Some of 

 the insects still clung on with their forceps and stung my poor 

 boy, who roared with pain at every fresh attack, whilst I killed 

 tliem as fast as I could, assisted by the nurse. At length all were 

 removed, about twenty being left dead on the ground. Going to 

 see the little fellow bathed with something to ease the pain, I was 

 absent about half an hour, and then returned to the same place, 

 when I saw a large number of the Ants surrounding the dead 

 ones. Being fond of natural history and having read much con- 

 cerning the instinct of Ants, I determined to watch them closely 

 now. At least four ran off very quickly, and I followed them 

 until I saw them enter a hillock containing an Ants' nest which 

 we had, in vain, tried to get rid of on account of the annoyance 

 caused by their close vicinity to our sitting tent. They remained 

 here about five minutes, when a number more came out two by 

 two, and proceeded slowly to the place where their dead com- 

 panions lay. Here they seemed to wait for something ; and pre- 

 sently we saw coming from the other side near the creek a number 

 surpassing those I had followed, and halting in the same place. 

 Then two Ants took up one of the dead ones and marched off, 

 followed by two others as mourners, then two others entered the 

 procession with a second dead Ant, succeeded, in the same way, 

 by another pair, and so on until all the dead were taken up, a 

 number of, I should think, 200 bringing up the rear. 



" Following the train, I found that the two empty-handed fol- 

 lowers relieved their fellows in advance, the latter falling behind 

 in the place of those who relieved them, and thus continuing to 



LINN. PBOC. — ZOOLOGY. 15 



