412 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
are formed—evidently strategical retreats in times of danger. Studying the 
relations and treatment of the Aphides, or plant-lice, by the ants, Sir John 
clearly demonstrates that not only are the Aphides kept and protected in 
the ants’ nests, but the eggs of Aphis, laid outside on the leaf-stalks of its 
food-plant in October, and exposed to risks of weather, are carefully brought 
by the ants into their nests, and afterwards tended by them during the long 
winter months until March, when the young are again brought out and 
placed on the young vegetable shoots. This proves prudential motives, for 
though our native ants may not lay up such great supplies of winter stores 
of food as do some of those found abroad, they thus nevertheless take the 
means to enable them to procure food during the following summer. The 
fact of European ants not generally laying up abundant stores may be due 
to the nature of their food, and these cannot always be kept fresh. They 
may also not have learned the art of building vessels for their honey, 
probably because their young are not kept in cells, like those of the honey- 
bee, and their pupz do not construct cocoons, like those of the humble-bee. 
Our English ants, nevertheless, store proportionately to their size ; for if the 
little brown garden ants be watched milking their Aphides, a marked 
abdominal distension is observable. The paper concludes by a history and 
technical description of a new species of Australian honey-ant. This 
corroborates Wesmael’s strange account of the Mexican species; certain 
individual ants are told off as receptacles for food—in short, they become 
literally animated honey-pots. 
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
A Handbook of Deer Stalking. By Atexanprr Macrag, late 
Forester to Lord Henry Bentinck. With an Introduction 
by Horatio Ross. Edinburgh and London: Blackwood 
and Sons. 1880. Post 8vo, pp. 85. 
Tur writer of this excellent little manual, who has filled the 
place of forester for many years in one of the best Highland 
deer-forests, is evidently a man of great: observation, and has 
improved the opportunities which he has enjoyed of making 
himself thoroughly acquainted with the habits of Red-deer, and 
the whole science of stalking them. We have read every word of 
his book, and like it much. Although written for the use of 
sportsmen, it contains much to interest naturalists, for in the 
remarks which are made concerning the keen sense of smell, and 
the power of vision, possessed by the Red-deer, a considerable 
insight is afforded into the ways and habits of this noble beast. 
LY. 
ll bain 
SS ee ee 
