332 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



the ants may sometimes be seen running down their holes 

 with these entomological poodles in their arms. If horses 

 and dogs fraternize and institute Platonic loves, why should 

 not the ants ? Such patterns of all the domestic virtues have 

 their pets. This is a bright side to the ordinary selfishness 

 and utter absence of an}' moral attribute in these beings, 

 and is a makeshift for goodness of heart which should draw 

 out our sympathy towards these creatures. 



The ants work day and night, with occasional intervals 

 of rest, and we are told by Kirby that the}' actually amuse 

 themselves with sports and games. A colony of ants was 

 observed by Bonnet enjoying the sunlight, one of their 

 amusements consisting in their carrying eacli other on their 

 backs, " the rider holding with his mandibles the neck of 

 his horse, and embracing it closely with his legs." Huber 

 also saw a numerous colon}^ of Formica rufa at play. "I 

 approached one da}-," he says, " one of their formicaries 

 exposed to the sun and sheltered from the north. The 

 ants were heaped together in great numbers, and seemed 

 to enjoy the temperature which they experienced at the sur- 

 face of the nest. None of them were working : this multi- 

 tude of accumulated insects exhibited the appearance of a 

 boiling fluid, upon which at first the eye could scarce fix 

 itself without difficulty. But when I set myself to follow 

 each ant separately, I saw them approach each other, mov- 

 ing their antennte with astonishing rapidit^^'; with their fore 

 feet they patted lightly the cheeks of other ants ; after 

 these first gestures, which resembled caresses, they reared 

 upon their hind legs by pairs, they wrestled together, they 

 seized one another b}'' a mandible, by a leg or an antenna ; 

 the}' then let go their hold to renew the attack ; they fixed 

 themselves to each other's trunk or abdomen, they embraced, 

 the}' turned each other over, or lifted each other up by 

 turns." He compares these sports, add Kirby and Spence, 

 to the gambols of two puppies, and tells us that he not only 



12 



