36 Transactions of the 



entrance to the ant hill. Having placed in a heap the fragments it 

 had scraped up, it formed them into pellets, and placed them on the 

 nest. Soon he noticed a slight furrow excavated in the ground, 

 representing the plan of a gallery. The labourer gave it greater 

 depth and breadth, and it became evident that it intended establishing 

 an avenue, -which was to lead fi'om one of the stories to the under- 

 ground chambers. Tliis was only half of the work of this single ant, 

 for it furrowed out another gallery, pai'allel to the first, to another 

 opening, leaving between the two a little wall three or Tour lines in 

 height. It often happens that the ants who lay down the foundations 

 of a story, owing to their working separately, occasion a want of 

 coincidence in the parts, but they are by no means embarrassed by 

 this. As an instance, a workman had constructed a wall, which was 

 to support a vaulted ceiling, still unfinished, that had been projected 

 for the wall of the opposite chamber. The ceiling, however, had not 

 been elevated sufficiently, and if continued would have met the wall 

 half way down, and this it was necessary to avoid. An ant, however, 

 arriving and noticing the difficulty, immediately proceeded to pull 

 down the ceiling and raise the wall upon which it rested ; it then 

 constructed a new ceiling with the fragments of the old one. And 

 what are the tools and materials used in constructing these stories ? 

 The materials are earth, straw, and pieces of wood, which they may 

 come across. If they find a sti'aw or piece of wood arrayed so as 

 to assist them in their work, they do not remove it, but make use 

 of it. By means of the water they moisten the earth and make it 

 adhere, and by the sun it is hardened and dried. Their only tools 

 are their jaws and their fore feet, whilst they use their antenna to 

 feel if everything is in its right position. 



And now to pass on to some of those ants that form their nests in 

 the trunks of old trees. The chief of these is the fuliginous ant 

 {Formica Fidiginosa). This ant hollows out trees into numberless 

 stories, more or less horizontal, the ceilings and floors of which are 

 about five or sis lines asunder, as thin as a card within, supported by 

 vertical partitions, which form numerous chambers, or by a series of 

 small slender columns, which leave a perfect communication through 

 the whole story. The wood in which these ants excavate is always 

 black, but the reason for this has not yet been explained. The red 

 ant (Mi/rimca Rulia) also forms its lodging in trees, but not to such 

 an extent as the fuliginous ant. The wood in the case of the red ant 

 is not blackened ; but the remarkable thing in the red ant is, that 

 they not only lodge in trees, but often make their nests in the earth. 

 The Ethiopian ant {F. Qi^thiops), and the yellow ant {F. Flava), can 

 also lodge in the earth as well as in trees. The Ethiopian ant hollows 

 out extensive lodges in the oldest trees, and makes use of the material 

 it has scraped off, to fill up chinks, and to make compartments in 

 those galleries which are too large. The yellow ant, when it takes 

 up its abode in a hollow tree, constructs entire stories out of decayed 

 wood. The decayed wood is mixed with earth and spiders' webs, and 



