i88o. 
A Living Honeycomb . 
87 
tion of c.annel and these shales form different series of hydro- 
carbons from those of common coal, and that they are nearly 
identical with those obtained by the distillation of peat, is 
suggestive of origin in peat-bogs, or something analogous to 
them. 
III. LIVING HONEYCOMB : 
A NOVEL PHASE OF ANT LIFE* 
UCH as has been written about the marvels of 
instinct, there are still discoveries of great interest 
to be made in this prolific field. Particularly in the 
domain of those insedt Yankees, the ants, with their won- 
derful ingenuity and human-like manners and customs, there 
is room for extended observations. 
Some lately-discovered fadts in relation to them are so 
curious and interesting that it may be advisable to give 
them greater publicity than they have yet obtained. Some 
of these fadts have long been known to the world of Science, 
but not to the public. Others are new discoveries. _ As a 
whole they form one of the most surprising chapters in the 
history of animal life and contrivance. 
Varied as are the social habits of the ants, it is generally 
considered that social bees surpass them in one parti- 
cular, namely, their mode of storing supplies of winter 
food, the storehouses of ant-food having no contrivance 
similar in ingenuity to the honeycomb, with its rich supply 
of the sweets of life. 
But the truth is that certain tribes of ants are well aware 
of the value of nature’s sweetmeats as articles of food, and 
have developed a mode of storing up their winter honey 
still more curious than that pradtised by the bees. They 
possess, in fadt, what may be called living honeycombs; 
perambulatory cells filled with distilled sweetness. We refer 
to the honey-bearing ants of New Mexico, concerning which 
some very interesting fadts have been brought to light during 
the past summer. 
The Rev. Dr. M‘Cook, of Philadelphia, a noted observer 
of ants and ant-life, has been interviewing these honey- 
bearers, and his results differ so widely from the ordinary 
fadts of insedt instindt that they cannot but prove of general 
interest. These ants had been previously known only in 
* This account of Dr. M‘Cook’s results has been kindly communicated to the 
Editor by Mr. C. Morris, Pniladelphia. 
