EGGS, &c. OF ANTS. 67 
them at the very moment of her laying 
them; they collect them together, and 
carry them in little heaps in their 
mouths. * On looking a little closer, we 
find that they turn them continually with 
their tongues ; it even appears, they pass 
them one after the other between their 
teeth, and thus keep them constantly 
moistened. Such is the first apergu 
which my glazed apparatus offered. 
Having directed my close attention to 
these eggs, I remarked they were of 
different sizes, shades, and forms. The 
smallest were white, opake, and cylindri- 
cal; the largest, transparent, and slightly 
arched at both ends; those of a middle 
size were semi-transparent. In holding 
them up to the light, I observed a sort of 
white oblong cloud; in some, a trans- 
* The eggs of ants are so remarkably minute, 
that there would seem an absolute necessity of 
their being held together by some glutinous matter, 
otherwise, it would render the removal of such small 
bodies in the mandibles of ants almost impossible ; 
the mandibles being so constituted as not to be 
brought into that close contact necessary for this 
operation, — T, 
