58 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 



as those of some insects. Among these the 

 Hive Bees, from the beauty and regularity 

 of their cells, from their utility to man, and 

 from the debt we owe them for their uncon- 

 scious agency in the improvement of flowers, 

 hold a very high place; but they are prob- 

 ably less intelligent, and their relations with 

 other animals and with one another are less 

 complex than in the case of Ants, which have 

 been so well studied by Gould, Huber, Forel, 

 M'Cook, and other naturalists. 



The subject is a wide one, for there are at 

 least a thousand species of Ants, no two of 

 which have the same habits. In this country 

 we have rather more than thirty, most of 

 which I have kept in confinement. Their life 

 is comparatively long : I have had working 

 Ants which were seven years old, and a Queen 

 Ant lived in one of my nests for fifteen years. 

 The community consists, in addition to the 

 young, of males, which do no work, of wingless 

 workers, and one or more Queen mothers, who 

 have at first wings, which, however, after one 

 Marriage flight, they throw off, as they never 

 leave the nest again, and in it wings would of 



