3680 The Zoologist — September, 1873. 



He again visited the scene of his observation in the South of 

 France, and thus describes what he saw : — 



" I had scarcely set foot on the garrigue, as this kind of wild ground is 

 called to distinguish it from meadows or terraced laud, before I was met 

 by a long train of ants, forming two continuous lines, hurrying in opposite 

 directions, the one with their mouths full, the other with their mouths 

 empty. It was easy enough to find the nest to which these ants helonged, 

 for it was only necessary to follow the line of ants burdened with seeds, 

 grain, or entire capsules, which had their heads turned homewards ; and 

 there sure enough, at about ten yards distance, and partly shaded by some 

 small cistus bushes, lay the nest, to and from the entrances of which the 

 incessant stream of in-comers and out-goers kept flowing." — P. 16. 



In this passage it will be observed that no mention is made of 

 the storehouse and store; it shows that the ants were travelling 

 loaded in one direction and returning unladen in the other; but 

 what became of the loads of which they had disposed does not 

 appear : the inference to be drawn is that these loads were 

 deposited in the interior of the nest, but Mr. Moggridge deter- 

 mined to leave nothing to inference, nothing to be surmised; that 

 had been the great error which it was his mission to dissipate. He 

 noticed, as had previously been done by Colonel Sykes, on the 

 outside of the nests, large heaps of rubbish, consisting of a variety 

 of objects, little lumps of earth, gravel and plant-refuse : he calls 

 them "kitchen middens"; the greater proportion of these collections 

 consisted of parts of grasses and seeds which had evidently been 

 rejected as useless : in many instances the albuminous portion of 

 the seeds had been abstracted, and the husks brought out and 

 thrown on the " midden." It became of course an object of great 

 importance to know what had become of the selected portion of 

 the produce of the harvest-field. He determined that this object 

 should be attained by selecting a nest where the coarse and hard 

 rock, lying near the surface and barring their downward course, 

 compelled the ants to extend their nests in a horizontal direction. 

 Here he commenced his excavations, and with a most satisfactory 

 result. 



" Almost at the first stroke, I came upon large masses of seeds carefully 

 stored in chambers prepared in the soil. Some of these lay in long sub- 

 cylindrical galleries, and, owing to the pi'esence in large quantities of the 

 black, shining seeds of amaranth {Amaranthtis Blitum), looked like trains of 

 gunpowder laid ready for blasting." — P. 28. 



