PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 9S 



up spirally under his neck ; — all this passes in an ami- 

 cable manner after mutual salutations. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, the recruiter takes the other by surprise, and drags 

 him from the ant-hill without giving him time to consider 

 or resist. When arrived at the proposed habitation, the 

 suspended ant uncoils itself, and, quitting its conductor, 

 becomes a recruiter in its turn. The pair return to the 

 old nest, and each carries off a fresh recruit, which being 

 arrived at the spot joins in the undertaking: — thus the 

 number of recruiters keeps progressively increasing, till 

 the path between the new and the old city is full of goers 

 and comers, each of the former laden with a recruit. 

 What a singular and amusing scene is then exhibited of 

 the little people thus employed ! When an emigration 

 of a rufescent colony is going forward, the negroes are 

 seen carrying their masters : and the contrast of the red 

 with the black renders it peculiarly striking. The little 

 lurf-ants {Myrmica ? cccspitum) upon these occasions 

 carry their recruits uncoiled, with their head downwards 

 and their body in the air. 



This extraordinary scene continues several days ; but 

 when all the neuters are acquainted with the road to the 

 new city, the recruiting ceases. As soon as a sufficient 

 number of apartments to contain them are prepared, the 

 young brood, with the males and females, are conveyed 

 thither, and the whole business is concluded. When 

 the spot thus selected for their residence is at a con- 

 siderable distance from the old nest, the ants construct 

 some intermediate receptacles, resembling small ant-hills, 

 consisting of a cavity filled with fragments of straw and 

 other materials, in which they form several cells ; and 



