118 OUT OF DOORS. 



while the composition of chloroform is two atoms of 

 carbon, one atom of hydrogen, and three atoms of 

 chlorine. It may be casually remarked that Formic 

 acid can be produced by artificial means. 



The nest of this insect is a wonderfully large struc- 

 ture, when the size of the tiny architects is taken 

 into consideration, and the regularity with which their 

 interior is parcelled out into chambers and galleries is 

 not less surprising. It is made of little pieces of stick, 

 dried leaves, broken stems of the dried fern, and always 

 contains the berries of the mountain ash, if any tree of 

 this kind should happen to be within a moderate dis- 

 tance. When I first observed the red berries amid the 

 heap of leaves and sticks, I thought that they had fallen 

 from a neighbouring tree and been accidentally blown 

 upon the nest, but I have since found that every nest in 

 the wood contains these berries, when a mountain ash 

 was within forty or fifty yards. Their use I cannot 

 imagine, as the ants do not carry them into the nest, but 

 merely mix them with the dried substance of the exterior. 



The materials of which the nest is composed are 

 heaped quite loosely and apparently at random on each 

 other. But if the nest be carefully examined, a certain 

 order is to be detected, particularly in the entrances 

 and galleries, which are made of long sticks rudely 

 arranged across each other, so as to form a five-sided 

 aperture. If a twig be brought to the nest, its destina- 

 tion is nearly sure to be at one of the many openings. 

 Being desirous of ascertaining whether the ants would 



