164 RELATION BETWEEN ANTS. 
at the very gate of the ant-hill, but the 
ants, who were not immediately the ob- 
ject of their search, paid no attention to 
their proceedings; they continued, as 
usual, their ordinary avocations, and did 
not appear to suspect what was going for- 
ward so near them. Thus, these en/eve- 
mens produce no sensation but in the 
very spot where they take place, which 
proves, that the ants do not take coun- 
sel of the whole republic when they feel 
inclined to change their abode. That 
ant which discovers a situation favour- 
able to the establishment of an ant-hill, 
conducts its companions to it, and these, 
in their turn, go and seek new inhabi- 
tants. It now and then happens that 
several workers undertake at the same 
time to found a new city, and conduct 
there the whole colony, which gives 
place to a temporary existence of several 
ant-hills; but these insects are soon aware 
of this division, and do not delay, in the 
last recruiting, bringing the whole colony 
into one nest, 
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