10 ARCHITECTURE OF ANTS: 
ments of less size in: proportion as the 
work advanced. ‘They at length brought 
in a number of dried leaves, and other 
materials of an enlarged form, with which 
they covered the roof. Is not this in 
miniature the art of our builders when 
they form the covering of any building? 
Nature seems every where to have anti- 
cipated the inventions of which we boast. 
‘This is doubtless one of the most simple. 
Our little insects, now in safety in their 
nest, retire gradually to the interior 
before the last passages are closed, one or 
two only remain without, or concealed 
behind the doors on guard, whilst the rest 
either take their repose, or engage in dif- 
ferent occupations in the most perfect 
security. 
I was impatient to know what took 
place in the morning upon these ant-hills, 
and therefore visited them at an early 
hour. I found them in the same state 
in which I had left them the preceding 
evening. A few ants were wandering 
.about on the surface of the nest, some 
