Her RICK, Instinctive Traits of Animals. 135 



tennas, upon which it walked away as though nothing had hap- 

 pened. Very different was the next experiment. I immersed 

 in water for about two minutes another worker, then took it out 

 and laid it on dry paper a moment, then returned it to the Ter- 

 mitarium, placing it on a chip. It was just able to stand. Four 

 soldiers were first to approach and notice it ; one ran to the 

 nest, the other three stood at a distance of about three eighths of 

 an inch, waving their antennae, evidently smelling that some- 

 thing was wrong, but careful not to touch it. Presently a worker 

 came out of the nest and cautiously approached, touched it 

 with its antennae, then gave it a cruel nip with its mandibles on 

 the head and went away. The poor sufferer remained motion- 

 less all the tmie, apparently blind and not knowing what to do. 

 A second worker came cautiously, as did the first, and touched 

 it with its antenna, then suddenly seized it by the thorax and 

 severed its head, without a struggle. The executioner then 

 turned around and deposited a drop of the ever-ready cement 

 on the headless body and walked away." In reply to the au- 

 thor's query, " Did they kill it to end its misery ? " we would 

 suggest that the bath in water had deprived the unfortunate 

 worker of the odor which constituted its passport to a place in 

 the nest and was therefore anathema ma/rnatha to its former 

 comrades. The patience with which the soldiers are groomed 

 and fed by the workers is also well illustrated in this article. 



May we not hope for many more detailed observations of a 

 like nature ? 



A curious instance of instinctive adaptation was noticed by 

 Mrs. Herrick which, though it may be familiar to many of our 

 readers, is mentioned to indicate an interesting line of investiga 

 tion. It was found that in a number of the flowers of the gar- 

 den nasturtium {Tropceo/um) small yellow spiders had built their 

 webs in such a way as to obstruct the honey tube. In one case 

 a small (young) spider, apparently an Erigone, had constructed 

 an ob'ique web from the two unfringed petals to the base of the 

 stamens in such a way as to cut off the access to the tube, Fig. 2, 

 A. In another case in which the spinner was not seen (though 

 a small black spider of the Thomisidie was caught in the tube) 

 the bases of the stamens were bound together and a few snares 

 thrown across the opening of the nectary. The spider apparent- 



