ANTS. 21 



and when the cold is not excessive, they re- 

 gularly go out to seek their accustomed sup- 

 ply from these insects. Some species of Ants 

 have even sufficient foresight to obviate the 

 necessity of these journies ; they bring these 

 animals to their own nests, where they lodge 

 them near the vegetables on which they feed ; 

 while the domestic Ants prevent them from 

 stirring out, guarding them with great care, 

 and defending them with as much zeal as 

 they do their own young. 



The accounts given of Ants inhabiting 

 other climates, sufficiently show what formi- 

 dable power they acquire, when the efforts of 

 numbers are combined. M. jMalouot men- 

 tions in his account of his travels through the 

 forests of Guyana, his arriving at a savannah, 

 extending in a level plain, beyond the hori- 

 zon, and in which he beheld a structure that 

 appeared to have been raised by human in- 

 dustry. M. de Profontaine, who accompanied 

 him in the expedition, informed him that it 

 was an Ant-hill, which they could not ap- 

 proach without danger of being devoured, 

 they passed some of the paths frequented by 

 the labourers, which belonged to a very large 



