Carpenter-Ants. 305 



carpentry, nay, what is more wonderful still, they have the 

 ingenuity to knead up, with spider's-web for a cement, the 

 chips which they chisel out into a material with which they 

 construct entire chambers. The species which exercise this 

 singular art are the Ethiopian (Formica nigra) and the 

 yellow ant (F. flam).* 



We once observed the dusky ants (F. fusca) at Blackheath, 

 in Kent, busily employed in carrying out chips from the 

 interior of a decaying black poplar, at the root of which a 

 colony was established : but, though it thence appears that 

 this species can chisel wood if they choose, yet they usually 

 burrow in the earth, and by preference, as we have remarked, 

 at the root of a tree, the leaves of which supply them with 

 food. 



Among the foreign ants we may mention a small yellow 

 ant of South America, described by Dampier, which seems, 

 from his account, to construct a nest of green leaves. " Their 

 sting," he says', " is like a spark of fire ; and they are so thick 

 among the boughs in some places, that one shall be covered 

 with them before he is aware. These creatures have nests 

 on great trees, placed on the body between the limbs : some 

 of their nests are as big as a hogshead. This is their winter 

 habitation ; for in the wet season they all repair to these 

 their cities, where they preserve their eggs. In the dry 

 season, when they leave their nests, they swarm all over the 

 woodlands, for they never trouble the savannahs. Great 

 paths, three or four inches broad, made by them, may be 

 seen in the woods. They go out light, but bring home 

 heavy loads on their backs, all of the same substance, and 

 equal in size. I never observed anything besides pieces of 

 green leaves, so big that I could scarcely see the insect for 

 his burthen ; yet they would march stoutly, and so many 

 were pressing forward that it was a very pretty sight, for the 

 path looked perfectly green with them." 



Ants observed in New South Wales, by the gentlemen in 

 the expedition under Captain Cook, are still more interesting. 

 * Huher. 



