ANTS. 25 



got up in the night, to take a view of their 

 labours. I always found some going up and 

 down, and very busy : one would think that 

 they never sleep. Every body knows that 

 Ants come out of their holes in the day time, 

 and expose to the sun the com, which they 

 keep under ground in the night. Those 

 who have seen Ant-hillocks, have easily per- 

 ceived those small heaps of corn about their 

 nests. What surprised me at first was, that 

 the Ants never brought out their corn, but in 

 the night when the moon shone, and kept 

 It under ground in the day time ? which was 

 contrary to what I had seen, and saw still 

 practised, by those insects in other places. 

 I quickly found out the reason of it. There 

 was a pigeon-house not far fi-om thence : 

 pigeons and birds would have eaten their 

 com, if they had brought it out in the day 

 time. It is highly probable they knew it 

 by experience, and I frequently found pigeons 

 and birds in that place, when I went to it in 

 a morning. I quickly delivered them from 

 those robbers : I frightened the birds away 

 with some piec«3 of paper tied to the end of a 



