30 LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD. 



from their habitations. I noticed that they al- 

 ways stopped and touched together their anten- 

 noe, as if they were saying, " How do you do, 

 this morning ?" 



Sometimes I have seen two long lines of ants 

 meet, who were marching in regular order, (I 

 suppose in search of food,) when each one 

 would successively stop, courteously salute his 

 neighbor, fall again into the line with his com- 

 panions, and march on as before. But I 

 should have been still more interested had I 

 known as much about them as I have since 

 learned. 



Ants always live in families ; and if you are 

 surprised at the understanding they display by 

 going, at the request of one of their companions, 

 to assist in conveying the dead fly to their nest, 

 how greatly would your astonishment be in- 

 creased if you could see the interior of one of 

 their habitations. 



Naturalists have taken great pains in the ex- 

 amination of these, by carefully removing the 

 earth which covered them, and have found them, 

 not great holes, as you might suppose, but regu- 

 larly and neatly built dwellings, consisting of 



