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a freslily-sown piece of ground, aud, no 

 matter what the seed, carrying it away one 

 by one to their nests. This approaches the 

 nearest to the ant described as the agi'icul- 

 tural ant, said to sow grass seeds ; perhaps 

 from this the idea was taken, but this ant de- 

 posits all kinds of seeds. When the heavy 

 rain penetrates to their stowage and wets the 

 seeds, they bring them out and dry them, 

 some few they allow to spront, but do not 

 permit them to attain any size. Another 

 kind eat fruit ; one light red kind roams about 

 singly, picking up anji;hing it can find, 

 making itself as it were generally useful ; 

 some say they catch fleas, but the fleas must 

 be very lazy ones. Another looks like a con- 

 necting link between the ant and the wasp ; 

 another, commonly called a ground-louse, 

 constructs out of earth covered passages up 

 the stalk and stems of plants and trees. One 

 circumstance is eminently illustrative of the 

 instinct of the ant. An oil stone, generally 

 kept well oiled, was constantly getting dry ; 

 this was the more surprising, as nothing was 

 ever seen near it on the bench upon which it 

 lay but a few ants, and as they were never 

 suspected of possessing any means of caiTy- 

 iug awa}- the oil, they were not thought to be 

 the culprits, until one day, after being well 

 oiled, the oil stone was watched, when first 

 one and then another ant was seen to ap- 

 proach -n-ith a small chij) of wood, which it 

 pushed on to the stone, and which, when well 

 saturated, was removed and carried away ; by 

 this means the oil was removed from the 

 stone. 



