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



found the winged sexes in the cold weather from 

 November to February. The workers vary greatly in 

 size, some of the workers-major having immensely- 

 developed heads, but you seldom meet these big fellows 

 walking about ; they seem to keep to the nest a good 

 deal, and all my finest sj)ecimens have been found by 

 ojDening up a nest. These ants are very fond of forming 

 covered ways from one point of a colony to another, or 

 in crossing a road, and they both tunnel and build up 

 and are very clever in availing themselves of any little 

 irregularities in the ground, by which they can save 

 themselves labour. For instance, on a piece of smooth 

 even ground they will build up a covered way, but if 

 their track comes across a stone they will tunnel under 

 it ; if a big brick they will skirt the side of it. They do 

 not completely cover in their ways along the whole line ; 

 a great part of the track will generally consist of two 

 walls only. The medium-sized workers, as w^ell as the 

 small, take part in these works, but the giant-headed 

 fellows I have never found engaged. 



These ants will come into your bungalows and clear 

 off any loot that may be about, and they seem particularly 

 fond of meat, or any insect you may kill. Supposing 

 you have a flight of cockroaches {B. orientalis) come 

 into your room at dinner-time, and in self-defence and 

 to preserve say your soup or glass from being used as a 

 bath you kill one or two, and leave the bodies on the 

 ground, in a very short time, long before you have 

 finished your meal, you will see their bodies apparently 

 become endued with a new life, and travelling at a quite 

 rapid pace across the floor ; it is swarms of the little 

 workers of Solcnojjsis carrying oft" the body to their nest. 



In one bungalow at Barrackpore I had a colony in my 

 verandah formed in one of the masonry columns, and 

 divided into two parts, one in the base and one in the 

 capital, and up and down the column between was a 

 continual stream of ants passing. It occurred to me 

 one day to cut off this passage, which I did by soaking 

 a punkah-cord in kerosine oil, and tying it tightly round 

 the centre of the column. The ants on either side soon 

 surged up in masses to within an inch of the cord, but 

 none could cross the oily barrier. I then formed a little 

 bridge with a piece of bamboo, and fixed it in the 

 brick-work, making a clear span over the cord, and the 



