1280 The Zoologist— July, 1866. 



distant, and piled on their city mound lay the sand that came from 

 the passages: these passages, or tunnels, are constructed for the pur- 

 pose of avoiding the almost insurmountable difficulty they would have 

 to encounter in the effort to carry their leaves through the tangled 

 grass, and also apparently to make it possible for them to obtain food 

 in times of scarcity during the cold weather. The cutting ants are 

 very easily stiffened with the cold air, and cannot succeed in scrambling 

 through fifty yards of thick grass with a leaf on a cold day; but with 

 the under-ground roads, in almost any kind of weather, they can go to 

 the terminus, hastily run out, and snatching up a recently-fallen live- 

 oak leaf, take it home through the tunnel without difficulty. I saw the 

 ants carrying nothing but leaves during this day's observation, neither 

 have I ever observed this species collect any other kind of food 

 except small flowers and the petals of larger ones ; but these are no 

 more than tender leaves. At the ant city there appeared to be a great 

 turn out of the ants this fine day: I noticed four sizes of them. Most 

 of the slaves were engaged packing out sand upon the city mound : 

 there were, however, a considerable sprinkling of them in company 

 with the larger sizes packing leaves. I noticed also a greater number 

 of their giants, walking to and fro with the labourers, but they per- 

 formed no work that I saw. The giants are large, and have a large 

 head with strong mandibles: they are well-formed for the execution 

 of much of their kind of labour; but I did not discover that they did 

 any work, though they were passing up and down the tree anl along 

 the road with the labourers all the time. All the small ones — the 

 slaves, and the second-sized ones, which may also be slaves — were 

 unremitting in their labours : the third size, or class, also carried 

 leaves quite busily. 



This species of ant often carry their subterranean roads to the 

 distance of several hundred yards from the city in grassy districts, but 

 where the grass has been destroyed tbey do not construct the under- 

 ground passages, but travel over land in nicely cleared-out roads, which 

 are seen radiating from the city mound and extending to various trees, 

 or spots of herbage which produce suitable leaves for their subsistence. 

 To see one of these well-cleared roads extending in a continuous line 

 from the city to some tree or garden two or three hundred yards 

 distant is indeed remarkable. This fact, in a district nude of grass, 

 occurs so often that it cannot be attributed to chance or blind instinct. 

 Some of the engineers, in their excursions in search of supplies, often 

 wander to a distance of four or five hundred yards, or even further, 



