him any more. It is strange beyond comprehension that so mahifést 
a humbug as the ant has been able to. fool so many nations, and 
keep it up so many ages without being found out.’ ‘ 
There is no-doubt. considerable truth in this humourous descrip- 
tion, and individual ants certainly are sometimes, according to.Sir 
John Lubbock’s observations, singularly stupid in finding their way 
home; they nevertheless in their collective social capacity exhibit 
wonderful intelligence. Ants, as most of you know, belong to the 
Hymenopterous insects, that is to say, the same class as bees, wasps, 
and hornets, and possess, like them, four membranous wings, the 
lady members alone possess a sting... They have also a much larger 
jaw than the males. There are. three descriptions of ants, males, 
females, and neuters ; these latter are really undeveloped females, 
and do all the hard work of the community, they fetch and ¢arry, 
tend the young, provide food, and even do all the fighting ; it would 
almost seem as though these little creatures had succeeded better 
thau their sisters of a higher organization..anud had actually attained 
to Women’s Rights.” Auts wnderge a regular, metamorphosis, 
from darva or. grub, to pupa or -chrysalis, wheuce they emerge a> 
perfect Iusects. The males aid females are, provided with wings. 
though wheu they becotne steady, married people, with a family to 
support, the ladies very judiciously lay aside their wings, and decide, 
to soar no more; the spinster ants (no fun is intended) are not, 
provided with wings. Every one has noticed the little wingless 
ants rushing about with small oval white bodies in their mouths ; 
these are the so-called ‘‘ant’s eggs,’’,so dear to the young canary 
and nightingale, they are really not eggs at all, but the larve 
or grub of the ant, and more nearly resembling babies than eggs ; 
they are carefully tended and fed by the neuters, who press the food. 
out of their own mouths into theirs, and on fine days these careful 
nurses carry their charges out into the air and. sunshine, but hasten 
with them indoors if it becomes cold or wet. Sir John Lubbock 
says they carefully sort them according to age and size, When the 
mature ants emerge from their cocoons these same indefatigable 
workers are at hand to assist them out of their envelopes and wraps, 
to unfold their legs and smooth out their wings, and otherwise 
assist. at their first toilet; indeed many of their interesting young 
charges would die were it not for this assistance. Then when the 
impeding wrappers are finally removed, they are piled, with real 
spinster precision, in a heap outside the nest. There exists con-, 
siderable misapprehension as to. the length of ,time ants live, and 
their existence has been, usually thought to be a very short one. 
Sir John Lubbock, has, however, had ants which have been _his 
pensioners for, eight or ten years. , His deyice for recognizing indivi- 
duals is ingenious, he regales them with ‘a dainty féast of honey, to 
