THE FORMICIDM. 201 



a greater or less reasoning power ; moreover, he had the 

 good fortune to witness many proceedings which have not 

 been seen by other observers. Thus, he describes how the ants 

 bring little beams and place them in front of the galleries, the 

 entry to which they wish to construct, and how they seek for 

 smaller pieces of wood as the operation advances. Having 

 observed these interesting manoeuvres, Huber wrote : — " Is not 

 this the art of our carpenters in miniature ? Nature seems to 

 be everywhere in advance of those inventions of which we, as 

 men, are so proud." Huber is correct, for if careful observers 

 of Nature had existed amongst the early races of men, many 

 important branches of knowledge and mechanical ideas, which 

 civilised nations have taken centuries to discover and to com- 

 plete, W'OuId have been found out very soon. 



The engraving of the nest of the red ant was drawn from 

 Nature in the forest of d'Aunay, near Paris. The rounded form 

 of the nest is very evident, and there is a great rent in it, which 

 occupies the centre of the mass. The dark holes into which 

 working ants are carrying large oval-shaped cocoons, which are 

 commonly called eggs, are the commencement of galleries, over 

 which small jDieces of wood may be noticed fixed in the earth. 

 On the left hand side there are some male and female ants, with 

 wings, and some workers may be seen close to the tree, pulling 

 at a fly which has come within their reach. The whole nest is 

 in a great state of activity in consequence of a portion of it 

 having lately been broken into. 



It is very interesting to observe how the ants commence to 

 build their nests, and the beginning of the work may be seen 

 when the overplus of inhabitants of a nest is obliged to leave it in 

 order that a new colony may be founded at the foot of some other 

 tree. First of all the ants have to do mining work, and they dig 

 into the soil with their mandibles, and after prolonged labour they 

 manage to make a cavity. Then the little bits of wood and the 

 other building materials are sought for, and brought in and stuck 

 into the earth, being crossed one over the other in a most ingenious 

 manner, so that the chambers, the greater or less sized cells, and 

 the galleries, are constructed and strengthened in the lowest part 

 of tlic nest, and then the upper stories arc built. If a large ant's 



