WHAT I SAW IN AN ANTS NEST. 331 



stone that the colony in its new sphere was brought into- 

 view. Our investigation once again excited the restless 

 beings. Then ensued, for the second time, the seizure of 

 the chrysalides, which, however, were to be seen packed 

 together in a secure position and already partly covered 

 with particles of earth and sand. To have reached the 

 position [in which we found them, the insects must have 

 descended at least three inches after entering below the 

 stone, and the labour of the continual ascent in search of 

 fresh chrysalides must therefore have been of no light kind. 

 We saw enough to convince us that the ants had already 

 settled down in a new organisation, which, with an undis- 

 turbed history, might repeat the peaceful state of their former 

 life; and we also had the thought presented, that in the 

 exercise of their duties under the pressure of an unwonted 

 exigency, the insects behaved and acted with no small 

 degree of intelligence, and apparently in harmonious concert 

 to the desired end. 



But the thoughts suggested by the brief observation of the 

 disturbed ant's nest hardly end thus. We may very natur- 

 ally proceed to inquire into the regular organisation and 

 constitution of the ant colony, and also, as far as fact and 

 theory may together lead, into the analogies if analogies 

 there be which exist between the social instincts of ants 

 and the ways of the higher animals, man included. 



The common ants and their neighbours belong to the 

 order of insects known as the Hymenoptera, a group repre- 

 sented by other insects of " social " habits, such as bees, 

 wasps, and hornets. The termites, or white ants of the 

 tropics, are the only " ants " foreign to this order of insects, 

 the white ants being near relations of the dragon-flies, May- 

 flies, etc. The family history of the latter, as told by Mr. 

 Bates, may serve to introduce us agreeably to ant society at 

 large. The nests of the termites may attain a height of five 

 feet, and present the appearance of conical hillocks, formed 

 of earth particles "worked," says Mr. Bates, "with a material 

 as hard as stone." In the neighbourhood of the nests, nar- 



