WITH THE FUCERONS. 233 
mark of anger. They sumetimes take 
these insects in their mouths, to guard 
them from the attacks of other ants: 
more frequently, they station a guard 
around them; and when they are enabled 
to do so, they put them out of the reach 
of their rivals, by a very ingenious 
method, of which I have seen many 
examples. 
I observed one day on the stem of a 
thistle, a little sphere or lodgment, which 
the ants had fabricated with earth; they 
quitted it by an extremely narrow aper- 
ture formed in the bottom, descended 
along the stalk, and passed into a neigh- 
bouring ant-hill. I destroyed one part 
of this tent, constructed almost in air, 
to see the interior, which consisted 
of a little hall, whose sides of a vaulted 
form, were smooth and compact. The 
ants had availed themselves of the form 
of the plant, to sustain this edifice; the 
stem passed through the centre of the 
apartment, and its leaves composed the 
whole of the carpentry. This retreat 
