54 MR J. G. GOODCHILD ON 
it is even said that people have been deceived into the 
belief that an extensive conflagration was in progress, when 
the appearance has been caused by nothing more than the 
aerial movements of a large body of winged ants. The 
impulse that has driven so many of the winged forms out 
from the nest into the air is of the same nature as that 
which leads to the swarming of bees. The swarm consists 
exclusively of winged male ants, which correspond to the 
drones in a bee-hive, together with winged females, each of 
which answers to the queen bee in the same community. 
The nuptial flight continues for some hours. A vast 
gathering of that kind nearly always attracts great numbers of 
predaceous animals of other kinds, who greedily devour a 
large proportion of the swarm, either in the air or on the 
ground. The male ants are especially liable to attacks of 
this kind, especially after they have fallen exhausted to the 
ground ; and it is said that at the close of the day when the 
swarming has taken place, hardly any of the males who 
have taken part in the nuptial flight are left undevoured. 
The female ants are decimated too; but many of these con- 
trive to escape. What happens to those who do escape being 
eaten is not yet fully known. It is believed that some of the 
female ants wing their way back to the parent formicary, and, 
arrived at the entrance, they double back upon their wings, 
break them off as appendages never to be again required, 
quietly re-enter, and take their place as joint sovereigns—or 
shall we say princesses ?—along with their mother. In other 
cases, and perhaps this is what happens as a rule, the winged 
female carefully selects a suitable spot for founding a new 
colony, alights there, divests herself of the now useless 
wings—for the nuptial flight occurs but once in their lives 
—enters the chosen spot quite alone, and begins to keep 
house. 
Now, in considering the sequel to this history, we have 
to bear in mind several facts. One of these is that ants 
go through a great deal of labour in founding and extending 
their abodes. They dig, carry the material from one place 
to another, rearrange it, as a mason might do, plan the 
work from the first so that the drainage, warming, and 
ventilation are all properly attended to. Arrangements. 
