60 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 



regular ranks, nor on the return did they 

 carry any of the booty, but marched along at 

 the side, and at tolerably regular intervals, 

 " like subaltern officers in a marching regi- 

 ment." He is disposed, however, to ascribe 

 to them a much humbler function, namely, 

 to serve merely " as indigestible morsels to 

 the ant thrushes." This, I confess, seems to 

 me improbable. 



Solomon was, so far as we yet know, quite 

 correct in describing Ants as having " neither 

 guide, overseer, nor ruler." The so-called 

 Queens are really Mothers. Nevertheless it 

 is true, and it is curious, that the working 

 Ants and Bees always turn their heads 

 towards the Queen. It seems as if the sight 

 of her gave them pleasure. On one occasion, 

 while moving some Ants from one nest into 

 another for exhibition at the Royal Institution, 

 I unfortunately crushed the Queen and killed 

 her. The others, however, did not desert her, 

 or draw her out as they do dead workers, but 

 on the contrary carried her into the new nest, 

 and subsequently into a larger one with which 

 I supplied them, congregating round her for 



