A NT- CATC HE R. 



129 



equally skilful in the performance of it. Whether it 

 be in the mere seeking- of their own food, in the pre- 

 paring of their habitation, or in any other duty, they are 

 all equally prompt and able without, ruler and without 

 counsellor. Thus they pass a most energetic season, 

 till their supply of food in the fields fail?, and the 

 temperature sinks too low for their remaining- in a 

 state of activity. Previous to this they seek their 

 dwellings, and in the inmost recesses of these cluster 

 together, and so pass the inclement months in a torpid 

 or hybernating state. Their nests are constructed of 

 various substances according to the habits of the 

 species, and according, as it should seem, as materials 

 are to be found. Some dig into the trunks of trees, 

 seldom, however, till these have begun to decay. 

 Sometimes they excavate the earth in bare places, 

 sometimes they make portions of the mud edifice 

 artificially, and sometimes (as in the case of the wood- 

 ants) the lull is exclusively made of little bits of 

 sticks, so placed as that while perfectly water-tight 

 and laid without any apparent order, they can be 

 entered at almost any point. Some naturalists mention 

 having found the nests of ants excavated in solid clay : 

 these must be a wonderful species, inasmuch as both 

 the physical and physiological arguments against ants 

 hybernating in clay, or even living comfortably in it, 

 are exceedingly strong. 



The different modes in which ants construct their 

 dwellings, and the different situations and materials 

 which they select, has led some, not a little whimsically, 

 to apply to them the names of certain human trades, 

 such as masons, carpenters, and others : at best those 

 comparisons are childish and trifling, and at worst 

 they have not a little of the " odium" which is said to 

 attach to comparisons generally. The operations of 

 these insects have no resemblance whatever to those 

 of the human artificers after which they are mis- 

 named ; and, therefore, besides being beneath the 

 dignity of natural history, these misapplications of 

 names invariably produce one or other of two results, 

 they either give young and ignorant persons an 

 erroneous meaning, or they destroy to them every 

 vestige of meaning. 



Any one who considers the very general distribu- 

 tion of ants, their countless numbers, their great 

 strength as compared with their six.e, their unwearied 

 assiduity in labour, the promptitude with which they 

 assist each other, the care which the rearing of them 

 compared with that of most other insects requires, 

 "and the curious fact that by far the largest majority 

 of the race are formed for labour only, must see that 

 the place which they occupy in nature cannot but be 

 one of very great and general importance ; and 

 though they are sometimes a little (and it is but a 

 little) annoying in gardens, disfigure dry meadows 

 and pastures with their hills, and sometimes speed the 

 termination of rotting trees, there is no question that 

 the services which they render counterbalance, many 

 thousand times over, any little ravages they commit. 

 The exertions of some of the smaller ones in clearing 

 the leaves of trees from that honey-dew with which 

 aphides cover them, to the great injury of their growth, 

 is much noticed. But honey-dew is far from being 

 the- principal food of the ants ; they do not go into 

 grounds unfavourable for their nidification for the 

 sake of this substance. Over some of the tough 

 clays where ants cannot subsist in the earth, the 

 leaves of the hedges may be often found so dripping 

 with honey-dew, as that a large phial might be filled 



NAT. HIST. VOL. I. 



with it in no grout length of time ; and yet in the 

 places where it was so abundant, the writer of this 

 article has never seen a single ant, though there was 

 no want of wasps, and also of wild bees, feeding 

 away with apparent gusto. So also it does not appear 

 that the presence or the absence or aphides on the 

 fruit-trees, has much influence on the number of ants. 



The food of the species which inhabit different 

 localities no doubt varies ; and there is little question 

 that, besides honey-dew, most of them are fond of 

 sugar, gum, and all the sweeter exudations of trees ; 

 but still their staple food appears to be animal matter, 

 either those larvae which are injurious to plants, or 

 small carrion, the incredible quantity of which that, 

 occurs, especially after the Midsummer rains, would 

 otherwise very seriously taint the air, even in climates 

 which are not excessively warm. A district which 

 swarms with ants is always a dry district, and a.s such 

 its atmosphere is sweet and favourable to human 

 health ; a clayey district, where they are few, has in- 

 variably a rank and unwholesome atmosphere ; and 

 though the presence of the ants is not to be considered 

 as the only cause of healthiness in the one place, and 

 their absence of unhealthiness in the other ; yet they 

 are accompaniments, inseparable from the result, 

 and therefore, to some extent, -influential in bringing 

 it about. 



But ants are valuable, not merely on account of 

 the creatures and substances which they eat, but on 

 account of the creatures which eat them. Some of 

 the finest, both of song and of gallinaceous birds, are 

 understood to be fed almost exclusively in their very 

 young state upon the cocoons of ants ; many other 

 birds feed largely on them ; and in foreign countries 

 there are peculiar genera of animals formed exclu- 

 sively for feeding upon ants. 



ANT-CATCHER (myiothcra}. A genus of birds 

 which feed almost exclusively on those insects from the 

 capturing of which they are named. They are found 

 in both continents, chiefly in the warmer latitudes, 

 and in the wastes and forests where ants are so very 

 numerous ; but though these forests are the chief haunts 

 of the greater number, they are never found high upon 

 the trees, but rather hopping about among the lowest 

 branches. On the ground they are more at home, their 

 tarsi being long and stout, and their feet altogether 

 admirably adapted for walking. They, in conse- 

 quence, run with great swiftness, and appear never 

 to tire while the ants are abroad. They are, iu 

 fact, upon the ground, very similar to what swallows 

 and swifts are in the sky, and capture their wingless 

 prey as adroitly as these capture winged insects. 



Their pastures, especially in the tropical countries, 

 are so highly productive, that they are. generally 

 found in packs, or small flocks, and often several 

 species may be found on the same ant-hill feeding 

 away in the greatest harmony. They are, of course, 

 day-feeders, and as the ants are out at certain times 

 of the day, and in certain states of the weather only, 

 their feeding is limited to these times. But the ants 

 are so numerous, that an ample supply maybe picked 

 up in a very short time, so that the lives of the ant- 

 catchers are much less laborious than those of many 

 other birds. 



These ant-catching birds are rivals of the ant- 

 eating mammalia and repViles, especially of the ant- 

 eaters properly so called, some account of which 

 will be found in the next article. But the two do 

 not come upon each other's ground. The mammalia 

 Q 



