Scientific Memoranda. 331 



fusca. On a closer examination I found they were fighting : they 

 were collected in groups of forty or fifty, running rapidly about, 

 and then stopping and pulling each other with their mandibles. 

 The field of battle did not extend over a surface of more than 

 three feet square, and there were probably five or six groupes 

 all eagerly contending with each other. After watching them 

 with much attention for about half an hour, I was called in to 

 breakfast; and, on returning, after a lapse of twenty minutes, the 

 battle was still raging. How long the conflict lasted I am unable 

 to say ; for when 1 first saw them, they evidently had been some 

 time engaged in their deadly game, and I was compelled to leave 

 them before the battle was over. I however visited the spot again 

 about one o'clock, and they were then busily employed in re- 

 moving their slain comrades. I counted about thirty dead ants on 

 the field ; more, probably, had fallen, as doubtless many had been 

 removed before my return. In one small spot, not more than an 

 inch square, seven dead ants were extended. Their courage is 

 very extraordinary ; for in several instances, with such fury and 

 obstinacy had these little warriors contended, that two might be 

 perceived locked in each other's embraces, having died in this, 

 their last mortal struggle. We have all read of the battles of 

 ants, but as far as my inquiries have extended, I believe but few 

 have witnessed their combats. I have observed ants for many 

 years, but with this exception, never saw any thing like hostility 

 among them. — 0. Loudon, March 1831. 



Magnetic re-action of Platina. — In a piece of Russian Platina 

 the size of a walnut, Gobel detected the two magnetic poles. Its 

 magnetism was so powerful that a middle sized needle was at- 

 tracted by it, and a magnetic needle was, at a certain distance, 

 set in motion by it. Many similar pieces of platina, from the size 

 of a hazel-nut to that of a hen's egg, in the collection of the im- 

 perial mining academy of St. Petersburg, exhibit similar pro- 

 perties. — Jameson. 



Interesting discovery of fossil animals. — There has been lately 

 sent to the garden of plants, a collection of fossil bones, from the 

 cacustrine deposits of Argenton, (Indre,) consisting of five or six 

 species of Lophiodon, from the size of a large rabbit, to that of a 

 horse ; also species of the genus anthrocotherium, of the trionyx 



