THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 169 
. Huxley says, ‘‘The laws of nature are statements of ten- 
dencies, and if one law expresses the truth, that tigers, 
which kill and eat, will live and wax fat, another expresses 
the converse truth, that if tigers do not kill and eat they 
will wax lean, and die. The results are consequences of two 
modes of action, both of which are in accordance with 
natural law (or they could not occur) and not rewards or 
penalties.”’ 
The same argument applies to the overwhelming increase 
of the introduced species over those of our indigenous ones 
that are unable to compete with them. If their increase is 
not co-equal with those of the exotic species ‘they will wax 
lean” in maintaining the circumstances of the existence. 
From the scientific, ethical, and aesthetic standpoints, the 
preservation of useful animal life should be encouraged 5 
not because the “balance of nature is being upset,’” which 
has no meaning so far as the evolution of life is concerned, 
and only obscures the true reason why these animals should 
be protected ; but because it is of scientific import to the wel- 
fare of man; has expression in a profound ethical ideal, viz., 
the prevention of a ruthless and inexnlicable destruction of 
useful animal life, carried on under the name of sport; and 
undermines the cultivation of a true aesthetic sense by 
supplying the idiosyncrasies of ‘‘modern”’ fashion, with the 
means of embellishment and ornamentation which are in no 
whit different from those indulged in by a Red Indian or 
South Sea Islander. : 
FOODS OF AUSTRALIAN ANTS, 
(By W. B. Gurney.) 
SOME conversation arising at the Tempe excursion on the 
food of ants it occurred to the writer that little data had 
been recorded, and I therefore suggest this,question as a 
subject for investigation by members of the Club. We know 
the common “‘gravel nest’’ or ‘‘meat ant’? (/ridomyrmex 
detectus) feeds on flesh, such as dead snakes, lizards, birds, 
etc., also insects, ‘“honey dew,’ flower nectar, and the 
like. Similarly our ‘Bulldog Ants” (AZyremcia spp.) feed 
on nectar, insects, etc.; the “Sugar Ants’? (Cam- 
ponotus spp.) like sweets, and the common black ‘‘house- 
ant” (Iridomyrmex rufontger) attacks many things; but we 
have little or no record of the proportion of animal and 
vegetable matter in their diet, what their natural staple foods 
are through different seasons of the year, or what the larvae 
are fed on. It is, therefore, requested that members 
forward notes on this interesting subject, 
