Packard] THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INSECTS. 325 



distinctly at eveiy step we make ; soon aftei- which we may 

 examine their galleries in vain for the insects, but find little 

 holes just large enough for them, by which they have made 

 their escape into their subterraneous roads. These galleries 

 are large enough for them to pass and repass so as to pre- 

 vent any stoppages (though there are always numerous pas- 

 sengers) and shelter them equally from light and air, as well 

 as from their enemies, of which the ants, being the most 

 numerous, are the most formidable." 



How Avell the soldiers perform their duty and the laborers 

 theirs, is described by Smeathman, who says that "if you 

 make a breach in a slight part of the building, and do it 

 quickly with a strong hoe or pick-axe, in the space of a few 

 seconds a soldier will run out, and walk about the breach, as 

 if to see whether the enemy is gone, or to examine what is 

 the cause of the attack. He will sometimes go in again, as 

 if to give the alarm ; but most frequently, in a short time, 

 is followed by two or three others, who run as fast as they 

 can, straggling after one another, and are soon followed by 

 a large body who rush out as fast as the breach will permit 

 them." They then attack in their blind rage whatever object 

 they come in contact with, whether the leg or foot of the 

 curious naturalist who has made the disturbance, all the time 

 making a crackling noise with tlieir jaws, beating them on 

 the sides of the building. AVhen all is quiet and before the 

 soldiers are all inside, "you will see the labourers in motion, 

 and hastening in various directions towards the breach, every 

 one with a burthen of mortar in his mouth ready tempered. 

 This they stick upon the breach as fast as they come up, and 

 do it with so much dispatch and facility, that although there 

 arc thousands, and I may say millions, of them, they never 

 stop or embarrass one another ; and you are most agreeably 

 deceived, when, after an apparent scene of hurry and confu- 

 sion, a regular wall arises, gradually filling up the chasm." 

 Other instances are given by this excellent observer in illus- 



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