When a fertilized queen starts a colony it proceeds much in this way: When a shaft has been sunk deep enough to insure safety, or a sheltered position secured underneath the trunk of a tree or a stone, the queen in due time deposits her first eggs, which are carefully reared and nourished. The first brood consists wholly of workers, and numbers between twenty-five and forty in some species, but is smaller in others. The mother ant seeks food for herself and her young till the initial brood are matured, when they take up the burden of life, supply the rapidly increasing family with food, as well as the mother ant, enlarge the quarters, share in the necessary duties, and, in short, become the _real_ workers of the nest before they are scarcely out of the shell. The mother ant is seldom allowed to peer beyond her dark quarters, and then only in company with her body guard. She is fed and cared for by the workers, and she in turn assists them in the rearing of the young, and has even been known to give her strength for the extension of the formicary grounds. Several queens often exist in one nest, and I have seen workers drag newly fertilized queens into a formicary to enlarge their resources. As needs be, the quantity of eggs laid is very great, for the loss of life in the ranks of the workers is very large; few survive the season of their hatching, although queens have been known to live eight years. (Lubbock.) The ant life has four well marked periods: First, the egg; second, the grub or larva; third, the chrysalis or pupa; fourth, the imago, or perfect insect. The eggs are small, ovate, yellowish white objects, which hatch in about fifteen to thirty days. The larvae are small legless grubs, quite large at the apex of the abdomen and tapering toward the head. Both eggs and pupa are incessantly watched and tended, licked and fed, and carried to a place of safety in time of danger. The larvae are ingeniously sorted as regards age and size, and are never mixed. The larvae period generally extends through a month, although often much longer, and in most species when the larvae pass into pupae they spin a cocoon of white or straw color, looking much like a shining pebble. Other larvae do not spin a cocoon, but spend the pupal state naked. When they mature they are carefully assisted from their shells by the workers, which also assist in unfolding and smoothing out the legs. The whole life of the formicary centers upon the young, which proves they have reached a degree of civilization unknown even in some forms of higher life.