THE SACRIFICE OF WINGS 301 



There is no creature that so scientifically uses the sun's heat 

 and light for the sake of health. The ant is always a fas- 

 cinating object of observation ; but it is only in August that it 

 becomes, so to say, a part of the summer scenery, a common 

 object, a being of the air as well as of subterranean places. 



Most countrymen once or twice at any rate have seen a 

 cloud of flying ants. The sight is more curious than a swarm 

 of Mayfly in June or a migrant horde of bees. The speed 

 of the flight is one of its marvels. One looks upon the ant 

 in general as an almost subterranean creature, wingless, 

 rather heavy, and so busy with mundane things that there is 

 no room for the enjoyment of unessential exercise. We 

 study them as members of advanced socialistic communities, 

 endowed with strange instincts and social affections. They 

 work for the tribe; they recognise friends and fight ene- 

 mies ; they communicate all sorts of news by strange signs 

 and touches ; they save their friends from drowning or other 

 hazard ; they keep their milch cows in the ant-hill, and 

 foster a strange inexplicable association with wood-lice. 

 All this and much more is recorded of the ant community, 

 and when we see the animals in field or garden they seem to 

 answer to their description. 



So it comes with a new surprise, even upon those who 

 have spent years of study on the ant, to see one day in 

 August a vast swarm of queens and kings mount into the air 

 with a dash and speed that seem to excel any other winged 

 thing. The wings, which are in fact very long and of most 

 beautiful construction, have become the master member. 

 They glint and sparkle in the sun as the whole concourse 

 shoots upwards at a frenzied speed till it disappears, and 

 you might think that you had mistaken sun motes for a 

 horde of insects. The flight is a marriage flight, such as 

 Maeterlinck described with almost extravagant ecstasy in his 



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