TKRMES. 
4 0 o 
dies, which are not only useless, hut seem rather 
cuml)ersome. 
The greater part have no wings, but they run 
exceeding fast, the males after the females; I have 
sometimes remarked two males after one female, 
contending with great eagerness who should win 
the prize, regardless of the innumerable dangers 
that surrounded them. 
They are now become from one of the most 
active, industrious, and rapacious, one of the most 
fierce and implacable little animals in the world, 
the most innocent, helpless, and cowardly; never 
making the least resistance to the smallest Ant. 
The Ants are to be seen on every side in infinite 
numbers, of various species and sizes, dragging 
these annual victims of the laws of nature to 
their different nests. It is wonderful that a pair 
should ever escape so many dangers, and get into 
a place of security. Some, however, are so for- 
tunate ; and being found by some of the labouring 
insects that are continually running about the sur- 
face of the ground under their covered galleries, 
which I shall shortly describe, are elected kings 
and queens of new states; all those who are not 
so elected and preserved certainly perish, and 
most probably in the course of the following day. 
The manner in which these labourers protect the 
ha))py pair from their innumerable enemies, not 
only on the day of the massacre of almost all 
their race, but for a long time after, will I hojie 
justify me in the use of the term Election. The 
little industrious creatures immediately enclose 
Y. VI. r. n. '2S 
