350 Mr. G. A. J. Rothney's notes 



to find her stiff and dead. I have always regretted I did 

 not mix her syrup with brandy or port instead of sherry, 

 but I fear she was past recovery. After bringing her in 

 the night before, I went back with a light and gathered 

 uj) some of the dead from the battle-tield, and of the 

 odds and ends of heads and bodies. I made out next 

 day some 53 slain, but the total must have been much 

 greater, as I did not succeed in picking up in the de- 

 fective light of a wall-lamp anything like the whole of 

 the killed. I should be inclined to estimate the total as 

 nearer 150 to 200. I did not observe any wounded ; 

 compressus did her work too effectively for that. 



Beyond a pure love of a good scrimmage I can offer 

 no suggestion as to any reason or cause for this fight ; 

 gemmiudtus was wholly unoffending, and compressus 

 might have left the battle-field with colours flying any 

 time from 4.30 up to 8 p.m. I have seen many instances 

 of compressus' pugnacity when coming across other ants, 

 or crossing close to another nest, but never such a 

 systematic, determined affair as the one described. I 

 have this Hereward of ants in my collection now, with 

 a few odds and ends of the slain. I have examined a 

 great many nests of compressus, but have never suc- 

 ceeded in finding in them any other species of ants, 

 Coleoptera, Aphidae, or indeed insects of any kind. 



Myrmecocystus viaticus (Fabr.). 



Cataglyphis viatica. 



This ant is common in the North-west Provinces, 

 Oudh, and the Punjaub. I have also taken it in Tirhoot, 

 but never in the Calcutta district. It forms its nests in 

 the hard-baked earth in the most exposed situations, 

 and seems to revel in the hot dry air and fierce sun of 

 these parts. You can always find plenty of nests in the 

 broken ground about Agra, and also in the pathways of 

 the gardens at Benares. The workers, which vary 

 immensely in size, can be found busy and active all the 

 year round, but the sexes I have only obtained in May. 

 The workers have a strong propensity for marching 

 about in irregular lines of a dozen or twenty together ; 

 they march at a great pace, but I have never been able 

 to detect any particular object in these excursions, and 

 have never seen them attacking other ants, or bringing 



