60 nAR\Ti:STING ANTS. 



by gleaners — giving the latter the benefit of the doubt. 

 He does not appear to have considered the rights of 

 the ants. 



Hope* has called attention to the fact that Meer 

 Hassan Ali, in his ' History of the Mussulmans,' ex- 

 pressly mentions this habit. ' More industrious little 

 creatures,' he says, ' cannot exist than the small red ants, 

 which are so abundant in India. I have watched them 

 at their labours for hours, without tiring. They are so 

 small, that from eight to twelve in number labour with 

 great difficulty to convey a grain of wheat or barley, 

 yet these are not more than half the size of a grain of 

 English wheat. I have known them to carry one of 

 these grains to their nest, at a distance from 600 to 

 1,000 yards. They travel in two distinct Hnes over 

 rough or smooth ground, as it may happen, even up 

 and down steps, at one regular pace. The retiuning 

 unladen ants invariably salute the burthened ones, who 

 are making their way to the general storehouse ; but it 

 is done so promptly, that the line is neither broken nor 

 their progress impeded by the salutation.' 



Sykes, in his account of an Indian ant, Pheidole 

 providens,^ appears to have been the first of modern 

 scientific authors to confirm the statements of Solomon. 

 He states that the above-named species collects large 

 stores of grass seeds, on which it subsists from February 



' Tram. Ent. Soc. 1840, p. 213. 



» Ibid. 1836, p. 99. Dr. Lincecum has also made a similar 

 obaervation. 



