218 PROF. J. R. GEEEKE ON THE MUTUAL RELATIONS 



alternate from time to time. They had uow gone a considerable 

 distance towards the sea-side when they stopped at a sandy hillock, 

 where those who marched in the rear of the procession commenced 

 operations by making holes, but I soon observed that only about 

 half the number took part in this employment. When a sufficient 

 number of graves had been dug, the dead bodies were laid in them, 

 and I found that those Ants which had hitherto stood idle were 

 deputed to cover them in. About six would not stir from their 

 places, and on these the others fell and killed them, whereupon 

 they made a single large pit at a distance from the other graves, 

 into which all the six were put and duly covered up. The Ants 

 then all paired off and marched back to the scene of slaughter, 

 where they remained together for a few minutes, when each com- 

 pany left for their own habitation. 



" The observation of this curious proceeding gave me great 

 pleasure ; and I had frequent opportunities afterwards of seeing 

 the insects act much in the same way. If one of the ' workers,' 

 however (who are much smaller than the rest), were killed, it was 

 buried where it fell, and no friends attended the funeral." 



On the Mutual Relations of the Cold-blooded Vertebrata. By 

 J. Eeat Greene, B.A., Professor of Natural History in the 

 Queen's College, Cork, &c. Commimicated by G. Busk, Esq., 

 Sec. L.S. 



[Read June 21st, I860.] 



J'rofessor Owen, in a paper read at the late Meeting of the 

 British Association at Aberdeen, brought forward a new classifica- 

 tion of the Reptiles, in which he sovight to embody the results of 

 a long-continued series of observations on several extinct forms of 

 the group. To those who are not familiar with the arrangement 

 referred to, the following summary of its leading features, here 

 presented in the somewhat condensed form of an analytical table, 

 may prove, perhaps, not unacceptable. 



Key to Professor Owen's arrangement o/'Reptilia. 



J "With post-orbitals and supra-temporals 2. 



I No post-orbitals and supra-temporals 4. 



fPleurapophyses short and straight. No occipital condyle. 

 Head defended b}' ganoid plates .... Ord. Ganocephala. 

 Pleurapophyses long and bent 3. 



