46 APPENDIX. 



font entrer dans la construction de leur edifice, comme clles y font 

 entrer des brins de bois, dc paille,etc." The solicitude of ants for 

 the young race, and the care which they take in transporting them 

 from place to place, has not been over-stated. They cherish and pro- 

 tect them with equal intelligence and courage ; the working ants knew 

 what precise degree of heat their health requires, and never fail to 

 bring them to the surface when the heat of the atmosphere is 

 favorable, or bury them at different depths, according to the in- 

 tensity of the cold. As soon as the larva? are hatched, the work- 

 ing ants begin bringing in the debris of dead insects found by the 

 way, or drag a struggling worm into the fatal shambles, where it is 

 divided into pieces, and apportioned to each, in rations most accu- 

 rately served out, the elder members of the community never 

 touching food, till Hie young have been fed and are satisfied. We are 

 also assured that when one of the labourers is accidentally wounded 

 at his work, he is assisted off by the others, and taken to the hos- 

 pital; but if his case be past skill of surgery, his body is thrown 

 away with the rubbish from the nest. Now all these, and a great 

 many more things recorded in the book of ants, are indeed, to use 

 the common phrase, surprising instances of instinct. 



WASP. 



Edwards relates the following extraordinary case of instinct in a 

 wasp, from Darwin. This wasp, it appears, was detected by our 

 poet philosopher in the act of endeavouring to carry off a fly of 

 nearly the same size as himself; in order to be able to fly away with 

 him, he first cut off his victim's head, but the wings of the de- 

 ceased fly being found to offer too great a resistance to the air, this 

 very clever wasp was obliged to descend again into the garden with 

 his booty, where, to the wonder of Dr. Darwin, he bit off the wings 

 very neatly one after the other, and then bore him aloof Without 

 difCculty ! 



I subjoin Edwards's own interpretation of the wasp's behaviour in 

 the series of acts which were sworn to by competent witnesses: 

 Wasp loquitur. f ' Quelquc chose agil sur les ailes deccttc mouchc, ct 

 m'empeche d'avanger; si je veux rcgagner rapidemenl ma demeure, 

 il faut que je m'en debarrasse, el pour cela le meillcur nioycn, 



