on Indian ants. 367 



ends being fixed well in the crowd of ants. I then 

 watched for an hour, but no ants found their way across. 

 I then conducted two or three over, and waited an hour ; 

 one of the led ants recrossed, but no others availed 

 themselves of the bridge. I then went for the usual 

 evening drive, and on my return after a couple of hours 

 I found the ants crossing the bridge in numbers. I 

 repeated this experiment many times with exactly the 

 same result. Say barrier fixed at 3 p.m. ; bridge erected 

 at 4 p.m., and a few ants led over; at 6 p.m. no ants 

 had availed themselves of the bridge, but at 8 p.m., on 

 my return from my drive or tennis, the bridge would be 

 in general use ; but never while looking on did the ants 

 avail themselves of this passage, except as mentioned by 

 a led ant recrossing. 



On one or two occasions I captured a worker of 

 Diacamma ragans, and placed her above the kerosine 

 cord ; without a moment's hesitation she ran up the 

 column to the capital, made her way rapidly through 

 the red ants, then along a beam to the next column, 

 then down to the floor of the verandah, and off to her 

 nest without a pause. 



Solenojjsis offer many strange contrasts of character ; 

 they are very clever in making their covered ways, and 

 in finding their own booty, such as described, but when 

 you apply artificial tests of intelligence they altogether 

 fail, and seem to be strangely slow and disappointing. 



Holcomyrmex indicus, Mayr. 



This ant does not appear to be generally common in 

 Bengal. I have taken it at Nischindipore Nuddea, and 

 in Barrackpore Park, but never in Calcutta or its 

 immediate neighbourhood. It is very plentiful in 

 Barrackpore Park, in the private grounds clpse to 

 Government House, where it delights in making its 

 nests in the red kunka (ballast) roads, or on any hard 

 dry patch of ground that can be found amongst the 

 grass. The ants swarm early in June, and during the 

 hot months from middle of March to the middle of June 

 you can easily find the nests by the great mounds heaped 

 up round the entrance of empty seed-vessels or husks 

 of grass-seed, I may call it chaff; these mounds will 

 more than fill a pint measure, and I have seen some 



