940 The American Naturalist. [November, 
abdomen and by which they communicate information.” 
When a bee arrives with important news she emits several 
shrill notes and taps a comrade with her antenne ; this com- 
rade passes the news to another, this to another and so on 
throughout the hive. If the news is pleasing all remains 
orderly, but if the news presages danger, great excitement 
arises. The news of danger is always carried first to the queen 
as the most important person in the community.“ I have 
heard these tones and believe with De Fraviére that bees com- 
municate information in this way. The queen emits a tone 
which is different from those of the workers. When the queen 
makes a progress through the hive while laying eggs, she fre- 
quently emits this cry. As soon as the workers hear it, they 
bow their heads and remain quiescent for several seconds. 
Both ants and bees show great affection for their young. 
They feed and cleanse them and assist them in every way 
possible. The young antis shown all of the devious path- 
ways and corridors in the habitation by the older ants, and 
her first visit into the world is made with several chaperones. 
There is a spider peculiar to this locality (Daviess Co., Ky.) 
which I have never seen elsewhere and which I have not seen 
described. This spider spins two webs; one is a trap set for 
the procurement of her food, the other is built for the gratifi- 
cation of an esthetic feeling hardly to be expected in an ani- 
mal so low in the scale of animal life. This latter web is 
generally spun in the angle formed by two walls, and always 
where the early morning sun can shine on it for several hours. 
Through the center of the web, reaching from one extremity 
of its long diameter to the other, the spider spins a ribbon of 
silk aboutan inch broad. This ribbon is very beautiful. The 
mesh is as closely woven as silk itself, and shines in the sun- 
light like a band of silver. As soon as the sunlight falls upon 
this web, the spider makes her appearance and walks slowly up 
and down her glittering roadway. She is not at all timid and 
I have watched her for hours at her strange performance. 
She irresistibly reminded me of some well dressed woman who 
a !Romanes : Animal Intelligence, p. 158. 
?[bid. 
