128 ROMANCE OF THE INSECT WORLD CHAP. 



morsels arc placed above but in another direction, 

 and pieces smaller as the work proceeds. At length 

 bits of dried leaves and other materials of larger size 

 are laid down ; the exact art in miniature of car- 

 penters when roofing a house. Nature seems every- 

 where in advance of those inventions of which we as 

 men are so proud. Doubtless had careful observers of 

 these things existed in early times, many mechanical 

 devices which have taken civilised nations centuries to 

 discover and to perfect, would have played their part 

 in the world's history considerably sooner than they 

 have done in fact. 



The nests of F. rufa are particularly large in the 

 fir- woods of Scotland, where I have seen them the 

 size of small haycocks, and occupied by absolutely 

 countless numbers. Yet these are mere molehills as 

 compared with the enormous mounds of species, ap- 

 parently of the same family, in warmer climates. 

 Stedman speaks of ant-hills in Surinam over six feet 

 high and at least a hundred feet in circumference ; 

 Malouet mentions having come across specimens in 

 the forests of Guiana of a height that he computes at 

 fifteen or twenty feet, with a diameter at the base of 

 from thirty to forty. 



Although the architecture of most ants is possessed 

 of strong points of resemblance, each species chooses 

 a particular position for its nest and establishes it on 

 its own plan. Like F. rufa, many that work in earth 

 are admirable subterranean burrowers. Perhaps the 

 brown, F. brunnea, carries off the palm, a species not 

 very common in this country. Though one of the 

 smallest, it is remarkable for ingenuity and the beauty 



