THE CHANGING YEAR 179 



dim nurseries, or abroad among the radiant 

 summer fields, the ants spent every hour of 

 day and night in preparation for the annual 

 exodus of the young swarms. 



Presently, when the population of the formi- 

 caries had become congested, that exodus 

 began, a^tid teeming multitudes of winged males 

 and females issued from the holes in the mounds. 

 Generally the males came first, scores of diminu- 

 tive '* neuters," their jaws wide open, driving 

 them up the trees and twigs and stalks that there 

 they might stretch their wings in expectation 

 of the flight of the females. As these vkgin 

 queens, daintily fluttering, like the males, to 

 the extremities of stalks and leaves, whence 

 they could quit their foothold without risk of 

 damage to their gauzy fans, rose singly into the 

 air, the males near them also left their restmg- 

 places, and mounted in swift rivalry far up into 

 the air till lost to view in the dazzhng sunhght. 



For a time before these swarming movements, 

 and also while the movements were in progress, 

 the partridges cared for little else besides the 

 bountiful insect food which they so readily 

 obtained. But afterwards, when the queen 

 ants, scattered over the country-side, began 

 their work as founders of separate colonies, and 

 when the season of exodus was over in the popu- 

 lous insect-cities that had been their home? 



