WITH THE PUCERONS. 243 
them in their mouths; they did not quit 
these eggs a single instant; they took them 
up, turned them, and after having sur- 
veyed them with affectionate regard, con- 
veyed them, with extreme tenderness, to 
the little chamber of earth I had placed 
at their disposal. They were not, however, 
the eggs of ants; we know that these 
are extremely white, becoming trans- 
parent, as they increase in age, but never 
acquire a colour essentially different. * 
I was, for a long time, unacquainted 
with the origin of those of which I have 
just spoken, and by chance, discovered. 
they contained little pucerons; but it 
was not these individual eggs I saw 
them quit, it was other eggs, which 
were a little larger, found in the nests of 
* Gould has taken notice of these black eggs, 
which he considers to be the female eggs of ants : 
here, however, he labours under a mistake, for they 
are evidently the eggs of the Aphides, or Pucerons. 
We learn from Mr, Kirby, that in a nest of yellow 
ants, which fell under his observation, he saw near 
the surface a parcel of the eggs of the Aphides, and 
these he knew by their black colour. — T. 
mM 2 
