WATSON'S CROSSING. 91 



above-ground ; the nest itself was comparatively empty; 

 and what few occupants there were seemed to be in a 

 semi-torpid condition. 



It was not possible for me to calculate what propor- 

 tion of the winged ants Avere carried by the wind too 

 far to return to tlieir old home ; but certainly a large 

 proportion were caught by the surrounding trees ; and 

 I found, on search, some of these ants crawling down 

 the trunks of trees, with their wings in a damaged con- 

 dition. How near the trees must be for the ants to 

 reach their old home I should like to determine, and 

 further, what tells them which road to take. Dr. Dun- 

 can, in his volume on the " Transformations of Insects," 

 states, '' It was formerly supposed that the females which 

 alidited at a crreat distance from their old nests returned 

 again ; but Iluber, having great doubts npon this sub- 

 ject, found that some of them, after having left the 

 males, fell on to the ground in out-of-the-way places, 

 whence they could not possibly return to the original 

 nest." In the instance I have described, it seems im- 

 possible that more than a very small percentage conld 

 have returned, and indeed, if they did so, it was forty- 

 eight hours after their departure, for during two days 

 I continued to revisit the old nest. 



Speaking of the little yellow ants, abundant in paths 

 and about houses, Dr. Packard, in his " Guide to the 

 Study of Insects," remarks : " The females, after their 

 marriage flight in the air, may then be seen entering the 

 ground to lay their eggs for new colonies, or, as West- 

 wood states, they are often seized by the workers and 

 retained in the old colonics." This latter occurrence was 



