PLEASURES OF SCIENCE, 35 



state of confusion. A singular humming 1 is heard, and the bees are 

 seen moving all over the surface of the combs with great rapidity. 

 The news spread quickly, and when the queen is restored, quiet im- 

 mediately succeeds. But if another queen is put upon them, they 

 instantly discover the trick, and, surrounding her, they either suffocate 

 or starve her to death. This happens if the false queen is introduced 

 within a few hours after the first is lost or removed ; but if twenty-four 

 hours have elapsed, they will receive any queen, and obey her. 



The labours and the policy of the Ants are, when closely examined, 

 still more wonderful, perhaps, than those of the Bee. Their nest is a 

 city consisting of dwelling-places, halls, streets, and squares, into 

 which the streets open. The food they principally like is the honey 

 which comes from another insect found in their neighbourhood, and 

 which they, generally speaking, bring home from day to day as they 

 want it. Later discoveries have shown that they do not eat grain, but 

 live almost entirely on animal food and this honey. Some kinds of 

 ant have the foresight to bring home the insects on whose honey they 

 feed, and keep them in particular cells, where they guard them to 

 prevent their escaping, and feed them with proper vegetable matter 

 which they do not eat themselves. Nay, they obtain the eggs of those 

 insects, and superintend their hatching, and then rear the young insect 

 until he becomes capable of supplying the desired honey. They 

 sometimes remove them to the strongest parts of their nest, where 

 there are cells apparently fortified for protecting them from invasion. 

 In those cells the insects are kept to supply the wants of the whole 

 ants which compose the population of the city. It is a most singular 

 circumstance in the economy of nature, that the degree of cold at which 

 the ant becomes torpid is also that at which this insect falls into the 

 same state. It is considerably below the freezing point ; so that they 

 require food the greater part of the winter, and if the insects on which 

 they depend for food were not kept alive during the cold in which the 

 ants can move about, the latter would be without the means of sub- 

 sistence. 



How trifling soever this little animal may appear in our climate, 

 there are few more formidable creatures than the ant of some tropical 

 countries. A traveller who lately filled a high station in the French 

 government, Mr. Malouet, has described one of their cities, and, were 

 not the account confirmed by various testimonies, it might seem ex- 

 aggerated. He observed at a great distance what seemed a lofty 

 structure, and was informed by his guide that it consisted of an ant 

 hill, which could not be approached without danger of being devoured, 

 Its height was from 15 to 20 feet, and its base 30 or 40 feet square. 

 Its sides inclined like the lower part of a pyramid, the point being 

 cut off. He was informed that it became necessary to destroy these 

 nests, by raising a sufficient force to dig a trench all round, and fill it 

 with fagots, which were afterwards set on fire ; and then battering 

 with cannon from a distance, to drive the insects out and make them 

 run into the flames. This was in South America ; and African 

 travellers have met with them in the same formidable numbers and 

 strength. 



The older writers of books upon the habits of some animals abound 



