1925 ] 
Growth of Ant Mounds 
79 
fresh earth over the domes. Then as in 1916, the incipient nest 
remained very much steeper on the north slope and still had an 
irregular band of green grass in tufts from half way up the slopes 
to near the base. The surface was covered about an inch deep 
with fine pellets and dried earth apparently brought out this 
spring to replace denudation and a series of partly open tunnels 
and pits across the apex of the mound showed that the interior 
had been exposed by destruction and removal of the roof in that 
part. The measurements were: west 15, east 24, north-south 
58, east-west 54. Later, October 18, the grass around the 
middle zone had grown tall but the honeysuckle that surrounded 
the nest stopped abruptly, leaving a bare narrow yard all about 
the base of the mound, no spray or stem of the honeysuckle 
reaching over this dead space to the base of the mound. The 
bald top with bits of stick and gravel extended down farther on 
the southerly exposure. The measurements were: west 18, 
east 28, east-west 60, north-south 63. Thus in this single season 
of building the ant’s mound had risen three to four inches and 
spread out five to six in diameter. 
July 25, 1920 the mound swarmed with ants but some other 
mounds near by were more populous. The bald top of the mound 
was in sharp contrast to the sides grown up with tall grass amidst 
which the ants had accumulated heaps of earth pellets that 
formed a spongy mass with irregular cavities. The grass holds 
the sides in very steep slopes. The moat-like encircling dead 
space on the level without the base of the mound was strewn 
with dead leaves but the honeysuckle stopped short at its outer 
edge. The mound had grown so that the North-west-South-east 
diameter much exceeded the shortest diameter. The measure- 
ments were then: West 18-20, East 24-30, North-South 57, 
East-west 54. By the 19th of September the mound had in- 
creased somewhat; the height being West 21, East 28, the width 
North-south 60, East-west 57. Very few ants were to be seen 
at this time of year and the nest had been got into fine condition 
for the winter, being covered with fresh roofing of whitish clay 
pellets as if from deep subsoil, along with many bits of grass 
stems, one to one and a half inches long, dispersed through with 
scattered black, dried, excreta of some large caterpillar. At the 
