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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Asia, or in Africa excepting along the borders of the Mozambique Channel, 
though they are not rare in the more southern regions included in the 
limits mentioned, some of them being entirely black, and others with a 
gloss of this colour, such as to obscure the other tints. — Sillimari’s Journal, 
Vol. vi. No. 40. 
The Honey-making Ant of Texas and New Mexico (Myrmecocystus Mexi - 
canus of Westwood'). — Mr. Henry Edwards gives the following account of 
these curious insects. He says the natural history of this species is so 
little known, that the preservation of every fact connected with its economy 
becomes a matter of considerable scientific importance, and the following 
observations, gleaned from Capt. W. B. Fleeson, of this city, who has re- 
cently had an opportunity of studying the ants in their native haunts, may, 
it is hoped, be not without interest. The community appears to consist of 
three distinct kinds of ants, probably of two separate genera, whose offices in 
the general order of the nest would seem to be entirely apart from each 
other, and who perform the labour allotted to them without the least en- 
croachment upon the duties of their fellows. The larger number of indi- 
viduals consists of yellow working ants of two kinds, one of which, of a pale 
golden yellow colour, about one-third of an inch in length, acts as nurses 
and feeders of the honey-making kind, who do not quit the interior of the 
nest, “ their sole purpose being, apparently, to elaborate a kind of honey, 
which they are said to discharge into prepared receptacles, and which con- 
stitutes the food of the entire population. In these honey-secreting workers 
the abdomen is distended into a large, globose, bladder-like form, about the 
size of a pea.” The third variety of ant is much larger, black in colour, 
and with very formidable mandibles. For the purpose of better under- 
standing the doings of this strange community, we will designate them as 
follows: — (1) Yellow workers; nurses and feeders. (2) Yellow workers; 
honey makers. (3) Black workers; guards and purveyors. The author 
then proceeds at length to describe them in the “ Proceedings of the Cali- 
fornia Academy of Sciences,” Yol. v., Part 1. The site chosen for the nest 
is usually some sandy soil in the neighbourhood of shrubs and flowers, and 
the space occupied is about from four to five feet square. 
JRissa Tridactyla, an Aleutian Bird . — The description of this bird is of 
interest. It is by Mr. W. H. Dali, and appears in the “Transactions of the 
California Academy of Sciences.” He says that the nest, eggs, and young 
in down, were all obtained about July 11, 1872, at Bound Island, Coal 
Harbor, Unga Island, Shumagins. They were also common at Delaroff 
Harbor, Unga, and seen at Kadiak, but not at Unalashka, or to the west of 
Unimak Pass. On entering Coal Harbor, Unga, we were at once struck 
with a peculiar white line which wound around the precipitous cliffs of 
Bound Island, and was seen to be caused by the presence of birds ; and as 
soon as opportunity was afforded, I took a boat and went to the locality 
to examine it. The nests, in their position, were unlike anything I had 
ever seen before. At first it appeared as if they were fastened to the per- 
pendicular face of the rock, but on a close examination it appeared that two 
parallel strata of the metamorphic sandstone of the cliffs, being harder than 
the rest, had weathered out, standing out from the face of the cliff from 
one to four inches, more or less irregularly. The nests were built where 
