Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 31.djvu/831

Rh spider, confirms the observations of others as to the creature deliberately attaching fragments of moss to the lid of its nest in order to conceal its position. Dr. Thomas Meehan describes a hornet that was gifted with great intelligence. He saw this insect struggling with a large locust in unsuccessful attempts to fly away with it. After several fruitless efforts to fly up from the ground with his victim, he finally dragged it fully thirty feet to a tree, to the top of which he laboriously ascended, still clinging to his burden, and having attained this elevated position he flew off in a horizontal direction with the locust. Dr. Meehan truly says, "There was more than instinct in this act, there was reasoning on certain facts and judgment accordingly, and the insect's judgment had proved correct."

A curious case of circumspection in ants is recorded by Dr. Joseph Leidy. In an empty house he observed some ants feeding on crumbs of bread left by the workman. He at once placed pieces of bread in the different rooms in the house only to find them the next day covered with ants, which he destroyed by causing them to fall into a dish of turpentine. After a few days the ants no longer visited the bread, and he supposed they had been exterminated. A few days after, however, he observed a number of ants in the attic feeding on the body of a dead fly. He immediately got a lot of grasshoppers and distributed their bodies in all the rooms, only to find that they were soon covered with ants, which he destroyed as before. This treat continued attractive for a few days only, when the ants abandoned the food. In brief, he tried meat, cake, and various other articles in turn; the ants for a while frequenting these snares, only to learn the danger involved, and finally avoided them.

The gradual dispersion of species in recent times is of great interest, and careful records should be made of the facts as observed and a collection of large numbers of individuals made, in order to compare them with specimens of the same species in future years, to ascertain the variation which may have taken place and the tendency of that variation. A number of observatians have been published within the last ten years, showing new areas of distribution. Littorina litorea, which has been creeping along the coast since 1869, as recorded by Gray, Verrill, and others, has now reached the southern side of Long Island Sound, as observed by Mr. Henry Prime. Lioplax subcarinata, an Ohio River species, has been found in the Hudson River at Catskill Landing. Limax maximus, first found at Newport, Rhode Islan d, by Mr. Powel, has since been found at Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Professor Hyatt. Bythinia tentaculata, first recorded from Oswego, New York, by Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, is reported as having been found at Burlington, Vermont, by G. H. Hudson. In the Mohawk