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COUNTRY L0R5:\v,\ 



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Al.lKS (JI'KKN Am. 'I'lic ants rcinceriiL-d i[i Itic 

 fiillowiny account lnMong to (wo cummcjn species. 

 The one is Lasiiis )iii;er, the small hrown-blaelv ant 

 that liiiiUis its nests in gardens and in hedgerows. 

 The other, L. umhraliis, a fairly coninion species, 

 though not so rreipient as /,. «;!;vr, is often over- 

 looke<l, owing to the reseiulilance its workers bear to 

 that commonest of all English ants, the yellow 

 /..JIaviis. In August, 1896, I had in captivity a 

 nest of /.. iiigo; which through an accident lost its 

 <|ucen, that had been injured in moving the nest. 

 The anls still crowded round the dead body for 

 three weeks, when it was brought out of the nest and 

 thrown aw.ay. The nest being a flourishing one, I 

 was desirous of getting it a i|ucen ; but, knowing the 

 almost entire refusal of all ants to accept a new 

 (pieen, I was at a loss as ll^ what should be done. 

 I had at the time a solitary fertile fei\iale L. uiiibralus, 

 and finding that when placed in a box with several 

 /.. iiigi-r workers she was not attacked, I put her into 

 the queenless nest of L. >iif;er. It might be men- 

 tioned that the female /-. iinihratiis is not at all like 

 the female /.. nigtr, the latter being larger, darker, 

 and of a diflierent form. Nevertheless the little black 

 ants received the strange queen with " open arms," 

 and she was very shortly established as ijueen of the 

 nest. To anyone acquainted with ants' habits, this 

 event will appear extraordinary enough. During 

 the year 1897 all the eggs and larvae left by the old 

 queen hatched, the last brood of larvae living 

 through the winter ; but in that year and the next, 

 though I paid careful attention to the nest, I was 

 unable to trace any of the offspring of the /,. iimbratus 

 i|ueen to maturity. .Vs the workers of Z. timbralus 

 are bright yellow, and those of /,. tiii;er are black, 

 there is no possibility of confusing the two. During 

 the next year, 1899, however, numbers of the 

 L. itmbratiis workers hatched, over 300 being ob- 

 served by me to hatch. They were assisted by the 

 L. nigrr workers. .\ll of these youfig ants were 

 either killed at once and eaten, given to the lar\ae 

 as food, or killed after a few hours' duration. Some 

 very few were allowed to live for a day, and others 

 were carried out of the nest either before hatching 

 or immediately afterwards, and thrown into the 

 surrounding water-ditch. Owing to this sudden 

 influx of unnatural food, the nest refused food of 

 other kinds for some days. I had noticed that the 

 queen paid peculiar attention to the larvae before 

 they changed to pupae, examining them and licking 

 then) — a rather unusual proceeding for a queen ant. 

 I'erhaps she feared for them in the midst of barbarous 

 strangers. I rescued about thirty of these young 

 L. umbralus workers, and about the same number 

 of pupae, and formed a small nest, giving them a 

 young fertile L. umbralus queen which I had found 

 previously. This small nest was augmented by 

 occasionally taking pupae from the nest of L. >iigt-r^ 

 and placing them outside, the workers carr)'ing them 

 inside. Among these pupae I once put about a 

 dozen pupae of the little black ants, /,. iiigcr, and 

 was surprised to find that the L. iimhraliis workers 



carried them in as rcnilily as ihoie lielonging to their 

 own species. However, ihtM- dozen pup.te, before 

 being opened, were kept longer in the nest than wnt 

 good for them, and in consctjuence nearly all were 

 (lead when taken out. These the I., uiiibraliii 

 workers used for fi«j<l ; but I noticed one or two 

 alive that lived f.ir a day or iwo, aftirwards di.s- 

 ap|>earing. When all the pupae liad hatched, two 

 black ants were left alive, and lived amicably in the 

 nest all the winter, their black colour showing a 

 sharp contrast lu the bright yellow ■'! their host.s. 

 One of them — the smaller mingles freely with the 

 others, and crowds with them round lli'- queen. The 

 other — a large ant — always holds aloof, and once or 

 twice I saw it attacked for a short time by a 

 /.. iimbratiis worker. In I'ebruary of the present 

 year, when the ants, kept in a warm room, 

 began to be active and to require food, I saw no 

 workers of /,. timbratus feeding outside their 

 nest. Thinking that they must re<|uire fotxl I kept 

 a close watch upoji them, and foimd that alxjut eight 

 o'clock every morning the larger /,. nit^er came out 

 to the honey and fed, afterwards returning to the 

 nest and feeding the /-. umbralus anls. I never saw 

 the other iii,i;er come out, nor any /,. umbralus. 

 This arrangement still goes on, but I have not seen 

 the /.. iiiger feeding the queen ; probably the ants of 

 her own species alone do that. It might be sug- 

 geste<l that the rightful owners of the nest compel 

 the solitary ant, as their slave, to work for them ; but 

 I suspect the reason lies in the greater activity of 

 /,. iiiger, the /,. umbralus being timid and rather 

 sluggish, not caring to venture out so early in the 

 year. The former case of a /,. umbralus queen in a 

 nest of L. iiigcr is interesting as throwing a light on 

 slavery and the case of the extraordinary ant --/wtv^a/w. 

 If in this nest the young workers of /,. umbratus 

 should ever be allowed to live, they would quickly 

 outnumber the L. niger^ who would practically 

 become their slaves. — (Rev.) \V. Cecil Craw.'ey, 

 Oddinglon Rcclory., near O.v/oni. 



LATii Si'RiNG IN North Devo.n. — This spring 

 of 1900 is one of the most backward on record for 

 many years pa.st. Cold easterly and northerly winds 

 predominated during February, March, and until the 

 middle of April. Swallows were not seen until the 

 17th of the latter month, when four cros.sed this 

 village hurriedly from east to west, as though still on 

 migration. I'p to this, April 19th, not any other 

 summer migrator)' bird has been seen, excepting a 

 line wheatear in breeding plum.age. It sometimes 

 happens in this district that summer almost leaps from 

 lagging spring when it has been cold as this season. 

 This year we ha\e missed those days when, a> 

 Tennyson sang in "Sir l^auncelot and (Juecn Guine- 

 vere," "The maiden Spring upon the plain Came in 

 a sunlit fall of rain." By the w.ay, when the sun 

 shines through rain in these parts of the countr)', the 

 peasantry call it a monkey's birthday Can anyone 

 suggest the origin of the expression ? The rainfall 

 recorded during February last by Mr. T. H. Briggs 

 in the raingauge on the lawn of Rock House, Lyn- 

 mouth, was exceptional, being so high as 7 'Si inches 

 that fell on the nineteen days when it rained. During 

 the previous two F'ebrviarys the fall was on twenty -one 

 days in 1898 = 2 62 inches, and in 1S99 on twelve 

 days 4-34 inches fell. Not any but hybernated 

 butterflies have yet been seen, and these included 

 the " brimstone " [GoitopUryx rhamni), tortoise-shell 

 and peacock butterflies ( /'awcjjc «r//V(i<.' and f. 10). 

 Wild flowering plants are generally backward.— yi'/zw 

 'J'. Carriiiglou, l.ynmoulh. 



