92 ARCHITECTURE OF ANTS. 
posed, but I was fearful of engaging im 
difficulties that did not come within my 
immediate province, and therefore kept 
to the slow but sure method of observ- 
ation, by which I hoped- to obtain the 
same result. 
I hastened, then, to observe one of 
these ant-hills, until I should perceive 
some change in its form. 
The inhabitants of that I had selected 
kept within during the day, or only went 
out by the subterranean galleries, which 
opened at some feet distance in the mea- 
dow. ‘There were, however, two or 
three small openings on the surface of 
the nest, but I saw none of the labourers 
pass out this way, on account of their 
being too much exposed to the sun, 
which these insects greatly dread. 
This ant-hill, which had a round form, 
rose in the grass at the border of a path, 
and had sustained no injury. I soon per- 
ceived that the freshness of the air and 
the dew invited the ants to walk over 
the surface of their nest; they began 
