106 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [ FEB. 4, 
ones hide away. Hence it was the yellows or natives that issued 
from the block of wood on the field of battle ; while in the case 
of the foreign or strange nest—which was only a fragment of a 
nest—in transporting it some distance, these older ones had 
dropped off on the way, leaving only the white ones in the inner 
recesses, and these had to be jarred out on the block. Of course 
there were some nearly mature, but the majority were of a lighter 
color,—hence I use the terms yellow and white, though all were 
probably the same species; and no wonder the yellows were 
masters of the field, being older. 
To see if there was any fight in the soldiers, I placed two, 
from separate nests, in a clean white saucer. ‘These soldiers are 
much smaller than the workers, and only discernible to my un- . 
assisted eye. The attempt succeeded, and with my glass I could 
see that it was a fight in self-defence when they came together. 
Such rapid vibratory movements, or jerks, with the beaks, could 
hardly be imagined, and in scurrying around one of them got 
a leg stuck on the saucer and could not pull itself loose, the 
saucer being so smooth. Looking closer, I thought it was 
stuck by some liquid ejected from the beak, a few small specks 
being visible. After being liberated, they collided again, and 
more spitting ensued, until their legs were entangled or stuck 
together, so that I used two pins to pull them apart ; they ap- 
peared to be limed all over, and stuck to everything that touched 
them. 
I have seen acommon black ant attack a nasutus soldier, 
drop it, and go off wiping its feet and antenne, evidently hav- 
ing received a dose of something sticky. It would, therefore, 
seem safe to say that this beak is a weapon of defence, though 
further examination would be desirable. I have repeated this 
experiment with the soldiers several times, with the same strik- 
ing results. To vary the trial, soldiers from the same nest were 
placed in the saucer; these would run about all right, until dis- 
.turbed by a pin, then they would go through the vibratory pro- 
cess, and be stuck with their own secretion. 
June3d, 1888. I have had the good fortune at last to secure 
to-day six queens of Hutermes—also eggs, soldiers, and workers, 
all from one nest, but did not find any winged ones there. The 
queens are about five-eighths of an inch long. I will forward 
them to yeu, as these are the first queens that I have seen. . . . 
‘T hope you will be successful in discovering some simple 
method of circumventing the ants in their marvellous and rapid 
destruction uf valuable property ; and in this connection would 
suggest appealing mainly to their sense of smell rather than of 
taste. 
June 16th, 1888. To-day notes the capture of two beautiful 
