1889. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 93 
powerful enough. All work together in harmony; and the 
rapidity with which they were laying bricks when IJ left them 
led me to judge that they would finish the break of three-eighths 
of an inch in about twenty minutes. 
You can certainly rely upon their method of repairing broken 
galleries as I have described it, for I have watched them mi- 
nutely and carefully many times. I have not yet seen any of 
their larve or eggs; but the time will soon come for the winged 
ones to fly, and then I must get some for you. . . . I have just 
made another observation of their repairing a broken gallery, 
with exactly the same result, and am curious to know where 
they get their material so quickly. It hardly seems possible for 
them to go from the top of a four-foot fence-post to the ground 
and back in five minutes. I have known them to repair a 
broken gallery a dozen times a day. 
April 4th, 1888. To-day a box-car was sent to the shop for 
repairs ; it has been lying on a side-track up the road, and was 
eaten by these ants from brake-beam to roof,—good for nothing 
but fire-wood ,—it is a sight to behold. I have just had quite a 
‘* picnic” with the Termites in it, and my hands have a pungent 
smell yet, in spite of frequent washing with soap. When the 
men began to break up the car, they found under the roof in one 
corner a large nest, about the size of ahalf-bushel basket, globu- 
lar in shape, with an outside covering, samples of which I send 
to you. This nest was held in place, orsupported, on the under 
side at intervals, and when touched with the fingers would 
crack, but not break away. I at once took this large nest in my 
hands, and broke it in two on the flange of a car-wheel, when, 
tomy delight, I found the largest white ants Ihave sent you, 
with embryo wings. These seemed to be congregated in the 
centre of the nest. I recognized'them as the winged ants that 
issue forth in such quantities at the commencement of the rainy 
season. They are then longer, and smaller in diameter, and ofa 
darker color than the samples sent. I hastily collected a num- 
ber in the palm of my hand, and bottled them. The other 
samples sent were taken at random from the fence-post nest; I 
think there are three kinds. I took a portion of the latter nest 
on my desk, and collected in one bottle all the white ants I 
could capture. They are of a retiring nature, and hid in the 
cells of the nest, from which it was difficult to dislodge them. 
There seem to be two kinds; the smaller are the ones that car- 
ried the cement and built up the galleries. The others are 
longer, and with amber-colored heads, and are seen only when I 
break largely into the nest. The other kind was that with the 
beak and shining black heads. From your description, I think 
the white ones are females or queens, and rarely leave their cells. 
