ATTRACTING QUEENS 129 



laid down : three of these were occupied by lapidarius 

 and one by terrestris. All these proved successful, 

 except one in a terra-cotta domicile, and, without 

 any aid from me, developed into colonies, although 

 the colonies in the tin and terra-cotta domiciles did 

 not flourish so well as those under the wooden covers. 

 As already stated, no damage was done by ants. 

 Neither did mice or shrews destroy any nests. To 

 keep these out, as soon as I saw a queen going in 

 and out of a nest, I pressed into the ground around 

 the mouth of the tunnel a tin cylinder about 5 inches 

 high and 5 inches in diameter, and open at both ends. 

 These cylinders, I believe, afford greater protection, 

 with less risk, than the mouse-excluders used in 

 1 9 10; also, they probably give a certain amount of 

 protection against ants. The queens soon learnt to 

 fly in and out of them. 



The fine dead grass used as nest material in 191 1 

 was of two kinds, both of them superior to and more 

 easily obtained than that of 19 10. The better kind 

 was scratched up by fowls which were confined to 

 a run which was moved once every day about a 

 pasture of fine grass in February, before the new 

 season's growth had begun : this material had the 

 great advantage of being curly, and it required 

 very little picking over and snipping up to prepare 

 it for use. The other kind was raked out of tufts 

 of fine grass in March and April. 



Reviewing all my attempts at making domiciles 

 for queens to occupy, I consider that much the most 

 promising were those under the wooden covers, and 



K 



