Similarly, MacCook describes an 'ant town' in the Alleghany Mountains of North America ('Trans. Amer. Entom. Soc.,' Nov. 1877) which was inhabited by _F. exsectoïdes_. It consists of 1,600 to 1,700 nests, which rise in cones to a height of from two to five feet. The ground below is riddled in every direction with subterranean passages of communication. The inhabitants are all on the most friendly terms, so that if any one nest is injured it is repaired by their united forces. It remains to be added in connection with this subject that the recognition is not automatically invariable, but when 'ants are removed from a nest in the pupa state, tended by strangers, and then restored, some at least of their relatives are certainly puzzled, and in many cases doubt their claims to consanguinity. I say some, because while strangers under the circumstances would have been immediately attacked, these ants were in every case amicably received by the majority of the colony, and it was sometimes several hours before they came across one who did not recognise them.' It may also be added that _Lasius flavus_ behaves towards strangers quite differently and much more hospitably than is the case with _L. niger_. The stranger shows no alarm, but, on the contrary, will voluntarily enter the strange nest, and she is there received with kindness; although from the attention she excites, and the numerous communications which take place between her and her new friends, Sir John was 'satisfied that they knew she was not one of themselves. . . . Very different is the behaviour of _L. niger_ under similar circumstances. I tried the same experiment with them. There was no communications with the antennæ, there was no cleaning, but every ant which the stranger approached flew at her like a little tigress. I tried this experiment four times; each stranger was killed and borne off to the nest.' _Emotions._ The pugnacity, valour, and rapacity of ants are too well and generally known to require the narration of special instances of their display. With regard to the tenderer emotions, however, there is a difference of opinion among observers. Before the researches of Sir John Lubbock it was the prevalent view that these insects display marked signs of affection towards one another, both by caressing movements of their antennæ, and by showing solicitude for friends in distress. Sir John, however, has found that the species of ants on which he has experimented are apparently deficient both in feelings of affection and of sympathy--or, at least, that such feelings are in these species much less strongly developed than the sterner passions.