1889. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCLENCES. 103 
On the morning of the third day, they were within an inch 
and a half of the top of the jar; sol placed a writing-pad on 
the top, for fear that they would be out before I returned from 
breakfast. But this was notsufficient ; for my boy came running 
to my office, saying that my prisoners ‘‘ were escaping by the 
hundred.” Itold him to place the jar in water until my return, 
and on reaching them, I found a regular procession of several 
thousand, They had plastered the under side of the pad, to 
gain a foothold until they reached its edge, and then they were 
free. . . . From all this I derive the following conclusions: 
1st. The soldiers are chiefly watchmen and directors for the 
workers. 2d. The workers make continuous use of their profuse 
secretions in the construction of their nests and galleries, and in 
the burial of their dead (enemies), or in escaping from confine- 
ment. 
May 23d, 1888. Last night I took a worker Hutermes from a 
nest in my garden, and dropped it into the midst of workers in 
my Termitarium. Instantly it was pounced upon by all that 
could get to it, legs and antenne clipped off, and in less than 
five minutes the workers were backing up to it and depositing 
their secretions upon it, while others were bringing grains of 
soil and covering it. In about fifteen minutes they had literally 
buried it alive in a hermetically sealed coffin. I procured 
others, and they were treated in the same way. I[ was now curi- 
ous to know if they would recognize members from their own 
nest after five days’ absence, and resolved to make the test. It 
was u success. 1 had noticed a piece of a wooden barrel-hoop 
lying by a part of the old nest, from which I had taken a por- 
tion. I[t was hollowed out in the centre and contained hundreds 
of ants. I carried it carefully and stuck it into my jar so ten- 
derly as not to disturb or crush one. Wonderful to relate, 
without any visible demonstration, they intermingled as if they 
had always been together. ‘Those which had been in the jar for 
five days seemed glad and excited at the acquisition of the old 
barrel-hoop, and began to incorporate it with the nest ; new 
galleries were commenced over it, and they all seemed happy. 
They evidently recognize members of their own nest, in distinc- 
tion from their own kind from another nest. ‘They must detect 
a stranger from another nest by the sense of smell. ‘They also 
notice fragments from a strange nest as quickly as they do the 
ants. <A strong light from either lamp or sun does not seem 
to be noticed by them in the least. I laid a piece of lead-pencil on 
the soilin my ‘ermitarium. ‘hey at once formed a procession 
of inspection from either end, and in passing each other they 
would drop from the smooth surface, about the rate of one each 
second. In a few moments, the glue was called for, and they 
