134 ON THE HABITS OF ANTS. [LECT. 



ant was again out by herself, and for some weeks no 

 other ant, so far as I observed, came out to the food. 

 I did not, however, watch her with sufficient regularity. 

 Last winter, therefore, I kept two nests under close 

 observation, having arranged with my daughters and 

 their governess, Miss Wendland (most conscientious 

 observers), that one of us should look at them once 

 an hour during the day. One of the nests contained 

 about 200 individuals, the other, a nest of P. rufescens, 

 with the usual slaves, about 400. The mistresses them- 

 selves never come out for food, leaving all this to the 

 slaves. 



We began watching on the 1st November, but did 

 not keep an hourly register till the 20th, after which date 

 the results up to the 24th February are given in tables 

 which have been published in the Linnean Journal. 

 The first relates to a nest of F. fusca, and the ants are 

 denoted by numbers. An ant marked in my register as 

 No. 3, was at this time acting as feeder to the com- 

 munity. From the time we began to watch, no other 

 ant came to the honey till the 22nd November, when 

 another ant came out, whom we registered as No. 4 : 

 while another on the 28th November was registered as 

 No. 6. These ants were subsequently assisted by five or 

 six others, and in the three months during which the nest 

 was under observation, the supplies for the community 

 were carried in by these few ants. 



The second set of observations were made on a nest 

 of Polyergus and F. fusca. The feeders in this case 

 were, at the beginning of the experiment, those known 

 to us as Nos. 5, 6, and 7. On the 22nd November, 

 a friend, registered as No. 8, came to the honey, and 



