102 FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 
they were unembarrassed by my presence. 
The sound produced by myriads of these 
insects did not equal that of a single 
wasp. In every part of the meadow, 
these assemblages might be witnessed: a 
zephyr was sufficient to disperse them, 
but they quickly reformed a compact 
body. It often happened several swarms 
were so intermingled as to constitute 
but one. I have seen very considerable 
swarms, but ascertained nothing particu- 
lar respecting them. * 
* Assemblages of winged ants have been also 
witnessed in this country, as is evidenced by the fol- 
lowing quotation :—“ In the beginning of August, 
1812, I was going up the Orford river, in Suffolk, 
in a row-boat, in the evening, when my attention, 
was caught by an infinite number of winged ants, 
both males and females, at which the fish were every 
where darting, floating alive upon the surface of 
the water. While passing the river, these had pro- 
bably been precipitated into it, either by the wind, 
or by a heavy shower, which had just fallen. Cap- 
tain Haverfield, R.N., gave me an account of an 
extraordinary appearance of ants observed by him 
in the Medway, in the autumn of 1814, when he 
was first-lieutenant of the Clorinde, which is con- 
firmed by the following letter, addressed by the 
surgeon of that ship, now Dr. Bromley, to Mr. 
Mac Leay : — ‘In Sept. 1814, being on the deck of 
