PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 377 



from the calibash and poisdoux trees in the neighborhood, darted down 

 among them, and destroyed by miUions those who were too sluggish 

 to make good their retreat. By five o'clock the whole was over ; before 

 sun-down, the negro-houses were all cleared in the same way ; and they 

 told me that they had seen the black birds hovering about the almond 

 trees close to the negro-houses, as early as seven in the morning. I never 

 saw those black birds before or since, and the negroes assured me that 

 they were never seen but at such times. "^ 



I shall now relate to you some other portions of Myrmidonian History, 

 which, though perhaps not so striking and wonderful as the preceding details, 

 are not devoid of interest, and will serve to exemplify their incredible 

 diligence, labor, and ingenuity. 



In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or later according to 

 the season, that ants first make their appearance, and they continue their 

 labors till the middle or latter end of October. They emerge usually 

 from their subterranean winter-quarters on some sunny day ; when, 

 assembling in crowds on the surface of the formicary, they may be 

 observed in continual motion, walking incessantly over it and one another, 

 without departing from home ; as if their object, before they resumed their 

 employments, was to habituate themselves to the action of the air and sun.^ 

 This preparation requires a few days, and then the business of the year 

 commences. The earliest employment of ants is most probably to repair 

 the injuries which their habitation has received during their state of inac- 

 tivity : this observation more particularly applies to the hill-ant (F. rufd), 

 all the upper stories of whose dwellings are generally laid flat by the 

 winter rains and snow ; but every species, it may well be supposed, has 

 at this season some deranged apartments to restore to order, or some 

 demolished ones to rebuild. 



After their annual labors are begun, few are ignorant how incessantly 

 ants are engaged in building or repairing their habitations, in collecting 

 provisions, and in the care of their young brood ; but scarcely any 

 are aware of the extent to which their activity is carried, and that their 

 labors are going on even in the night. Yet this is a certain fact. Long 

 ago Aristotle affirmed that ants worked in the night when the moon was 

 at the fulF; and their historian Gould observes, "that they even exceed 

 the painful industrious bees. For the ants employ each moment, by day 

 and night, almost without intermission, unless hindered by excessive 

 rains."'* M. Huber also, speaking of a mason-ant, not found with us, 

 tells us that they work after sunset, and in the night.^ To these I can 

 add some observations of my own, which fully confirm these accounts. 

 My first were made at nine o'clock at night, when I found the inhabitants 

 of a nest of the red ant (Myrmica rubra) very busily employed ; I 

 repeated the observation, which I could conveniently do, the nest being 

 in my garden, at various times from that hour till twelve, and always 

 found some going and coming, even while a heavy rain was falling. 

 Having in the day noticed some Aphides upon a thistle, I examined it 



' Mrs. Carmichael on the West Indies, quoted in Saturdmj Magazine, 1833, p. 150. 

 * Gould, 67. De Geer, ii. 1054. ^ Hist. Animal. 1. ix. c. 38. * Gould, 68. 



» Huber, 35. 42. 



32* 



