278 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



may readily repeat them without going to the trouble 

 of constructing artificial formicaries. The three spe- 

 cies which have just been mentioned will be found 

 to be better adapted for such observations than the 

 yellow ants {F. jiava), which are by no means of a 

 migratory disposition, perhaps because their hills 

 are of more laborious and extensive construction, 

 and a general movement is not therefore so easily 

 effected. The wood-ants {F, rufa), again, appear, 

 from the observations of Huber as well as our own, 

 to be considerably addicted to emigration ; though 

 from their preferring to live in woods, they are not so 

 convenient for most observers to study. Huber one 

 day deranged the dome of one of the encampments 

 of the latter, at which they took offence and emi- 

 grated. 



' I saw,' says he, ^ at the distance of ten paces 

 from their nest, a fresh ant-hill, which communicated 

 with the old by a path struck out in the grass, along 

 which the ants were passing and repassing in great 

 numbers. I remarked that all those going towards 

 the new establishment were loaded with their com- 

 panions, whilst those moving in a contrary direction 

 were running one after the other. From that period, 

 I put several of these republics to the same proof I 

 destroyed so often the roof of their underground city, 

 that I succeeded in driving them from their resi- 

 dence. The first and second times they repaired 

 the breaches, but the third they resolved to seek an 

 asylum less exposed to such accidents. I then ob- 

 served one of the labourers leave the nest, carrying 

 one of its companions, and I watched it till it depo- 

 sited its burden at the margin of a subterranean 

 cavity. This little carrier was soon succeeded by 

 others, whose numbers, at first but trifling, increased 

 every moment. After several had been carried in 



