104 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FEB. 4, 
stood upon their heads on both sides, 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, with occasionally a grain of soil. 
I have just closed up a small box to send to you. It contains 
samples of nest of 7. testaceuws L., from my office window. ‘The 
old nail I found imbedded in a solid mass of the nest about 
three inches thick. ‘This seems to prove that as these ants 
devour the wood, they fill up the cavity thus made with their 
nest ; hence the nail was incorporated. . . . Iam now trying 
my pets, Hutermes. with different kinds of wood, to see which 
they relish best. I have found them at work among a pile of 
lignum-vite ties. 
June 2d,1888. The antsareto me an inexhaustible subject. 
. . « It isnow about three weeks since they took up their abode 
on my study table, and theyare apparently happy and contented, 
and they seem fatter than when they arrived. 
I have been lately closely watching the soldier Hutermes (the 
nasuti), with a view of giving you a better definition of the pe- 
culiar functions of their horn-like beak or proboscis,—but with- 
out much success, and shall have to continue to cal! them a 
soldier-guard. They seem more inquisitive than their fellow- 
workers, and at the same time more cautious. If the point ofa 
pencil is placed among the group gently, they will touch it with 
their antenne, and then retreat a little, or hurry off to warn the 
rest. A worker will come along, feel carefully at the peucil, 
and then crawl up it, at once, in a sociable way. I can always 
pick up a worker in this manner, to examine with my glass ; 
buta soldier is too wary, and requires finesse to capture him,— 
such as rubbing the point of the pencil on the nest, to give ita 
similar odor,—and this must be its own, for each nest has its 
own peculiar odor ¢o them. 
The vibratory movement that I first noticed in this species 
seems to be common to the three kinds of wood-ants that have 
been here noted ; it seems to be a part of ant-language, for the 
soldiers make the most frequent use of it. Ants are wonder- 
fully inventive in adapting themselves to a change of circum- 
stances and situation ; for instance, ont of doors they are never 
seen at work, but are always under cover, and can only be ob- 
served,—and then, of course, not at work,—when the nest or 
galleryis broken. But here, in my glass ‘Termitarium, I can feed 
them with different kinds of wood, on which they fall to work 
with great avidity, exposed to view, and in strong light, with 
no attempt at concealment, and this on the first day after in- 
stalment. Why this sudden change in their method of work? 
How did they learn that they were not exposed to the weather, 
