tration: EXCAVATING AN ANT-HILL.]

In the low pine barrens of Florida are large districts thickly dotted
over with small mounds made by a species of ant whose habits are unknown
to the scientific world. Each mound is surrounded by a circle of small
chips and pieces of charcoal, which the busy inhabitants often bring
from a long distance. The hills are regular in outline, with a
crater-like depression on the summit, in the centre of which is the
gateway or entrance.

These ants do not live in vast communities like the mound-builders of
the North, but each hill seems to be a republic by itself, though
separate colonies in the same neighborhood have friendly relations with
each other. Their color is rufous or reddish-brown, and they are
furnished with stings like bees and wasps, and, like the honey-bee,
always die after inflicting a wound, for their stings are torn from
their bodies and left in the victim. The pain inflicted is about the
same as that caused by the sting of the honey-bee. But they are not as
vicious as most stinging insects: they will submit to considerable rough
treatment before resorting to this last resource.

There are three sets of neuters in each colony--major and minor workers
and soldiers: also one wingless queen is found in each nest. The head is
very large, especially that of the soldier.[1] The workers minor--which
are the true workers--have regular well-defined teeth on the mandibles,
while most of the soldiers have merely the rudiments or teeth entirely
obsolete. All the queens which I have found--eighteen in number--have
perfectly smooth mandibles, without the least vestige of a tooth.

Early in December, 1877, I brought a large colony of these ants from one
of the hills, including the workers major and minor and soldiers, and
established them in a glass jar which I placed in my study. They very
soon commenced work, tunnelling the earth and erecting a formicary, as
nearly as they could after the pattern of their home on the barrens. The
mining was done entirely by the small workers. At first they refused all
animal food, but ate greedily fruit and sugar, and all kinds of seeds
which I gave them were immediately taken below, out of sight. I now
visited the mounds on the barrens and found abundant indications of
their food-supplies. At the base of each mound was a heap of chaff and
shells of various kinds of seeds. The chaff was _Aristida speciformis_,
which grew plentifully all about. I al