Insects. 7531 



excavating the walls and depositing the earth in the shape of pills in large heaps on 

 the floor below. Nothing would stop them ; gunpowder was tried, and arsenic mixed 

 with sugar was poured down their holes, but to no purpose; still the mining went on: 

 the tables and food were overrun, and the latter damaged by them ; they got into tea, 

 beer, wine, and everything else that was left exposed ; if a piece of bread, meat or 

 fruit was left on a table for an hour or so, they would find it out and would soon be 

 seen in a long stream passing to and fro over the floor and up the legs of the table. 

 The only way we could keep our bread from them was by putting it in a basket sus- 

 pended from a beam by a single string. I was obliged to do the same with the birds 

 shot, for if left on a shelf or table the ants would quickly find them. — G. C. Taylor, 

 in ' Ibis,' ii. 21. 



Australian Ants burying their dead. — One very hot and cloudless day, when not a 

 breath of air stirred the leaves, my eldest boy (four years old), coming up from the 

 beach, fatigued aud hot, threw himself on a grassy mound near where I was sitting, 

 and remained quietly enjoying the rest, and anticipating the pleasure he would have 

 in showing to his sister the pretty shells and corals he had found. I was startled by a 

 sudden scream, such as one only gives when in terrible pain. A snake was my first 

 thought, and in horror I went to the child ; but was at once reassured on seeing him 

 covered by " soldier ants,'' on whose nesl he had unwittingly lain down. Some of the 

 . insects still clung on with their forceps, aud stung my poor boy, who roared with pain 

 at every fresh attack, whilst I killed them as fast as I could, assisted by the nurse. 

 At length all were removed, about twenty beiug left dead on the ground. Going to 

 see the little fellow bathed with something to ease the pain, I was absent about half 

 an hour, and then relumed to the same place, when I saw a large number of the ants 

 surrounding the dead ones. Being fond of Natural History, and having read much 

 concerning the instiuct of ants, I determined to watch them closely now. At last four 

 ran ofiF very quickly, and I followed them until I saw them enter a hillock contaiuing 

 an ants' nest, which we had in vain tried to get rid of on account of the annoyance 

 caused by their close vicinity to our sitting-tent. They remained here about five 

 minutes, when a number more came out two by two, aud proceeded slowly to the 

 place where their dead companions lay. Here they seemed to wait for something ; 

 and presently we saw coming from the other side, near the creek, a number surpassing 

 those I had followed, and halting in the same place. Then two ants took up oue of 

 the dead ones and marched ofi", followed by two others as mourners ; then two others 

 entered the procession with a second dead ant, succeeded, in the same way, by another 

 pair, aud so on, until all the dead were taken up — a number of, I should think, two 

 hundred bringing up the rear. Following the train, I found that the two empty- 

 handed followers relieved their fellows in advance, the latter falling behind in the 

 place of those who relieved them, and thus continuing to alternate from time to time. 

 They had now gone a considerable distance towards the sea-side, when they stopped 

 at a sandy hillock, where those who marched in the rear of the procession commenced 

 ojieraiions by making holes; but I soon observed that only about half the number 

 took part in this employment. When a suflBcienl number of graves had been dug, 

 the dead bodies were laid in them, and I found that those ants which had hitherto 

 stood idle were deputed to cover them in. About six would not stir from their places, 

 and on these the others fell and killed them ; whereupon they made a single large 

 pit at a distance from the other graves, into which all the six were put and duly 

 covered up. The ants then all paired off and marched back to the scene of slaughter, 



