FORMICID^ — ANTS. 159 



to be attended with some inconvenience, for, says Tennent, 

 the Malabar coolies, with bare and oiled skins, were so fre- 

 quently and fiercely assaulted by the Ants as to endanger 

 their stay on the estates. 



The pupge or cocoons of the Ants, during the day, are 

 placed near the surface of the Ant-hills to obtain heat, which 

 is indispensable to the growth of the inclosed insects. This 

 is taken advantage of in Europe to collect the cocoons in 

 large quantities as food for nightingales and larks. The 

 cocoons of a species of Wood-ant, Formica rufa, are the 

 only kind chosen. In most of the towns of Germany, one or 

 more individuals make a living during summer by this busi- 

 ness alone. "In 1832," says a contributor to the Penny 

 Encyclopedia, "we visited an old woman at Dottendorf, near 

 Bern, who had collected for fourteen years. She went to 

 the woods in the morning, and collected in a bag the sur- 

 faces of a number of Ant-hills where the cocoons were de- 

 posited, taking Ants and all home to her cottage, near which 

 she had a small tiled shed covering a circular area, hollowed 

 out in the center, with a trench full of water around it. After 

 covering the hollow in the center with leafy boughs of wal- 

 nut or hazel, she strewed the contents of her bag on the level 

 part of the area within the trench, when the Nurse-ants im- 

 mediately seized the cocoons, and carried them into a hollow 

 under the boughs. The cocoons were thus brought into one 

 I place, and after being from time to time removed, and black 

 ones separated by a boy who spread them out on a table, 

 1 and swept off" what were bad with a strong feather, they 

 i were ready for market, being sold for about id. or 6d a 

 quart. Considerable quantities of these cocoons are dried 

 for winter food of birds, and are sold in the shops. "^ 



Ants not only furnish food to man for his birds, but also 

 food for himself, in both the pupa and imago states. Nicoli 

 Conti, who traveled in India in the early part of the fifteenth 

 century, says the Siamese eat a species of Red-ant, of the 

 size of a small crab, which they consider a great delicacy 

 seasoned with pepper.^ At the present day, the pupae of a 

 species of Ants are a costly luxury with these people. They 

 are not much larger than grains of sand, and are sent to 

 table curried, or rolled in green leaves, mingled with shreds 



1 Penny Encycl., sub Ant. 



2 Hakluyt Society, ii. 13. 



