JAP RELATION OF ANTS 
veral ant-hills, and obtained them of dif- 
ferent degrees in shade; they were not 
all black and yellow ; some were brown, 
of a slight, and also of a brilliant red and 
white; others were of a colour less dis- 
tinct, as a straw colour, greyish, &c. 
I remarked they were not of the same 
colour at both extremities. 
To observe them more closely, I placed 
them in the cover of a box faced with 
glass; they were collected in a heap, 
like the eggs of ants; their guardians 
seemed to value them highly ; after hav- 
ing visited them, they placed one part in 
the earth, but I witnessed ‘the attention 
they bestowed upon the rest: they ap- 
proached them slightly separating their 
pincers, passed their tongue between 
each, extended them, then walked al- 
ternately over them, depositing, I be- 
lieve, a liquid substance as they pro- 
ceeded. They appeared to treat them 
exactly as if they were eggs of their 
own species; they touched them with 
their antenne, and frequently carried 
