i 4 o OF INSTINCT. Sect. XVI. 16. 4. 



are obferved to ?o into their winter beds fat and ftronor, but re- 

 turn to dav light in the fpring feafon very lean and feeble. The 

 common fties fleep during the winter without any provifion for 

 their n: uriihmeiit, and are daily revived by the warmth of the 

 fun, or of our hies. Thefe whenever they fee light endeavour 

 to approach it, having obferved, that by its greater vicinity they 

 get free from the degree of rorpor that the cold produces •, and 

 are hence induced perpetually to burn themfelves in our candles : 

 deceived, like mankind, by the mifapplication of their knowl- 

 edge. Whiifi many of the fubteiraneous infects, as the com- 

 mon worms, feem to retreat fo deep into the earth as not to be 

 enlivened or awakened by the difference of our winter days j 

 and Hop up their holes with leaves or ftraws, to prevent the 

 fcofts from injuring them, or the centipes from devouring them. 

 The habits of peace, or the ftratagems of war, of thefe fubterra- 

 nean nations are covered from our view ; but a friend of mine 

 prevailed on a diftrefled worm to enter the hole of another worm 

 on a bowling-green, and he prefently returned much wounded 

 about his head. And I once faw a worm rife haftily out of the 

 earth into the fun-fhine, and obferved a centipes hanging at its 

 tail : the centipes nimbly quitted the tail, and feizing the worm 

 about its middle cut it in half with its forceps, and preyed upon 

 one part, while the other efcaped. Which evinces they have 

 defign in flopping the mouths of their habitations. 



4. The wafpof this country fixes his habitation underground, 

 that he may not be affected with the various changes of our 

 climate ; but in Jamaica he hangs it on the bough of a tree, 

 where the feafons are lefs fevere. He weaves a very curious 

 paper of vegetable fibres to cover his neft, which is conftrudled 

 on the fame principle with that of the bee, but with a different 

 material ; but as his prey confifts of flefh, fruits, and infects, 

 which are perifhable commodities, he can lay up no provender 

 for the winter. 



M. de la Loubiere, in his relation of Siam, fays, « That in a 

 part lorn, which lies open to great inundations, all 



ke ants make their iettlements upon trees ; no ants' nelts are to 

 n any where elfe." Whereas in our country the ground 

 only fituatior*. From the fcriptural account of thefe in- 

 ks, one '.night be led to fufpecV, that in fome climates the lay 

 up a provifion for the winter, (Prov. vi. 6. xxx. 25.) Origen af- 

 : fame, (Cent. Celf. L. 4.) But it is generally believed 

 that in this country they do not. The white ants of the coaft 

 of Africa m ike themfelves pyramids eight or ten feet high, on 

 a b t the fame width, with a fmootli furface of rich 



clay, ively hard and well built, which appear at a di fiance 



like 



