74 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 
they often visit over twenty flowers in a 
minute, keeping constantly to one species, 
without yielding a moment’s dalliance to any 
more sweet or lovely tempter. Ants fully 
deserve the commendation of Solomon. 
Wasps have not the same reputation for in- 
dustry ; but I have watched them from before 
four in the morning till dark at night work- 
ing like animated machines without a mo- 
ment’s rest or intermission. Sundays and 
Bank Holidays are all the same to them. 
Again, Birds have their own gardens and 
farms from which they do not wander, and 
within which they will tolerate no interfer- 
ence. Their ideas of the rights of property 
are far stricter than those of some statesmen. 
As to freedom, they have their daily duties as 
much as a mechanic in a mill or a clerk in an 
office. They suffer under alarms, moreover, 
from which we are happily free. Mr. Galton 
believes that the life of wild animals is very 
anxious. “From my own recollection,’ he 
says, “I believe that every antelope in South 
Africa has to run for its life every one or two 
days upon an average, and that he starts or 
ee ae 
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