."is PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



found several, which he says live very peaceably to- 

 gether, showing- none of that spirit of rivalry so re- 

 markable in the queen bee. 



And here I must close my narrative of the life and 

 adventures of male and female ants : but, as it will be 

 followed by a history of the still more interesting pro- 

 ceedings of the workers^ I think you will not regret 

 the exchange. I shall show these to you in many dif- 

 ferent views, under each of which you will find fresh 

 reason to admire them. My only fear will be lest you 

 should think the picture too highly coloured, and deem 

 it incredible that creatures so minute should so far ex- 

 ceed the larger animals in wisdom, foresight, and sa- 

 gacity, and make so near an approach in these re- 

 spects to man himself. — My facts, however, are de- 

 rived from authorities so respectable, that I think they 

 will do away any bias of this kind that you may feel in 

 your mind^. 



I need not here repeat what I have said in a former 

 letter concerning the exemplary attention paid by these 

 kind foster-mothers to the young brood of their colo- 

 nies; nor sliall I enlarge upon the building and nature 

 of their habitations, which have been already noticed*"; 

 — but, without any of these, I have matter enough to 

 fill the rest of this letter with interesting traits, while 

 I endeavour to teach you their language, to develop 



* It may br thoiiglit that many of the anecdotes related in the follow- 

 ing history of the proceedings of neuter ants could not have been ob- 

 served by any one, unless he had been admitted into an ant-hill ; but it 

 must be 'recollected that M. P. Iluber, from whose work the most extra- 

 ordinary facts are copied, invented a kind of ant-liive, so constructed ui 

 to enable him (o observe their proceedings without disturbing them. 



* Vol. I. 2d Ed. 479. 



