134 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



Tennitariums were formed by supporting a nest upon a branch 

 in a battery jar. " On the second day, a scouting party of sol- 

 diers on the top of the nest looked up anxiously to the top of 

 the jar, and waved their antenni^ upwards, standing on tip-toe. 

 They kept this position a long while, while others were running 

 up and down. I soon divined their intention to be to find a 

 way of escape from the jar. Meanwhile, thousands of workers 

 were eating the wood and working at nest-building as though 

 they intended to stay there ; not one appeared to be idle, sick, 

 or even tired. On the evening of the second day, I saw a party 

 of workers starting a track of cement up the side of the jar, 

 using no soil, only their secretions, which showed through the 

 glass, like brownish frosting." "The next day, they commenced 

 two tracks up the sides of the jar, by backing up as high as they 

 could reach with the extremity of their abdomens, and then 

 making a deposit of their glutinous secretions. Each one would 

 go up head-first as high as it could climb on the secretion, and 

 apparently mark the place of deposit, then turn around and 

 back up again." The termites recognized instantly parts of 

 their own community after being a long time separated. "I 

 laid a piece of lead-pencil on the soil of my Termitanum. They 

 at once formed a procession of inspection from either end, and 

 in passing each other they would drop from the smooth surface 

 at about the rate of one each second In a few moments the 

 glue was called for, and they stood upon their heads on each 

 side, reaching up with their abdomens, dotting the sides and 

 others on the surface. In a short time there were none falling, 

 the pencil was specked all over." This observation is especially 

 instructive as showing, like the method of escaping from a 

 smooth glass jar, a definite intelligent adaptation of means to an 

 end in an unfamiliar exigency. 



The suggestion that these insects are chiefly guided by the 

 sense of smell is strongly confirmed by the following passage : 

 " I have been observing the use they make of their antennae, 

 by causing a large droj) of water to fall on a worker, which com- 

 pletely covered it for an instant, and made its antennae curl up 

 and stick to its head. It moved aimlessly about, apparently 

 quite blind, until another worker, noticing its helpless condition, 

 commenced at once to lick it drv, and then straightened its an- 



