WOOD-ANTS. 239 



sensation, but mind, reason, and memory.* ^lian, how- 

 ever, describes, as if be bad actual!}^ witnessed it, tbe ants 

 ascending a stalk of growing corn, and throwing down 

 "the ears which they bit off" to their companions below." 

 Aldrovand assures us that he had seen their granaries ; 

 and others pretend that they shrewdly bite off the ends of 

 the grain to prevent it from germinating, j These are 

 fables which accurate observation has satisfactorily contra- 

 dicted. 



But these errors, as it • frequently happens, have con- 

 tributed to a more perfect knowledge of the insects than 

 we might otherwise have obtained ; for it was the wish 

 to prove or disprove the circumstance of their storing up 

 and feeding upon grain, which led Grould to make his 

 observations on English ants ; as the notion of insects 

 being produced from putrid carcases had before led Eedi 

 to his ingenious experiments on their generation. Yet, 

 although it is more than eighty years since Gould's book 

 was published, we find the error still repeated in very 

 respectable publications.;]: 



The coping which we above described as forming the 

 exterior of the wood-ant's nest, is only a small portion of 

 the structure, which consists of a great number of interior 

 chambers and galleries, with funnel-shaped avenues lead- 

 ing to them. The coping, indeed, is one of the most 

 essential parts, and we cannot follow a more delightful 

 guide than the younger Huber in detailing its formation. 



"The labourers," he says, "of which the colony is 

 composed, not only work continually on the outside of 

 their nest, but, differing very essentially from other 

 species, who willingly remain in the interior, sheltered 

 from the sun, they prefer living in the open air, and do 

 not hesitate to carry on, even in our presence, the greater 

 part of their operations. 



" To have an idea how the straw or stubble-roof is 

 formed, let us take a view of the ant-hill at its origin, 



* In formica non modo sensus, seel etiam mens, ratio, memoria. 



t Aldrovandus de Formicis, and Johnston, Thaumatiirg. Nat. p. 35G. 



X See Professor Paxton's Illustrations of Scripture, i. 307. 



