Still, it would be interesting, if it were possible, to assure oneself whether this is the case; that is to say, whether the residue of the winter stores is really consumed during the summer, or whether a portion of it remains in the granaries until the following autumn. One might perhaps learn something as to this if one had an opportunity of opening a nest late in July, and before the characteristic autumn-fruiting plants had set their seed. If the granaries were then principally filled with seeds of spring-fruiting plants, and the winter seeds were almost or entirely absent, this would afford tolerably good negative evidence in favour of the latter having been eaten during the summer. One thing is certain, and that is, that these harvesting ants do not habitually abandon their nests every year. On the contrary, while many swarms leave the nests at different seasons, a portion of the original colony, or of its descendants, still remains in the old home, and very few out of the many nests which I have watched during the past three years, and of which I have noted and mapped the positions, have been deserted. On my return to Mentone in October, 1873, I hastened to examine the nests between which war had been carried on in the previous year (_Ants and Spiders_, p. 38), and found in one case that the vanquished nest was completely lifeless and abandoned, while the victorious colony was remarkably thriving, and its granaries teemed with seeds. The locality occupied by the other belligerent colonies had unfortunately been built over.