ANT LIFE. 153 



this insect, which is apt to be very annoying, in conse- 

 quence of its fondness for ripe fruit. 



Sometimes its numbers are incalculable. The late Mr. 

 F. Smith writes of it as follows : "In the month of Sep- 

 tember, 1855, I observed at Dover immense clouds of this 

 ant passing over the town towards the sea. Subsequently, 

 on passing along the beach, I observed a line of their 

 floating bodies extending from the town at least a mile 

 towards St. Margaret's. The line consisted of males and 

 females, and was nearly a yard wide." 



There is never any difficulty in finding an ant's nest, 

 as there is always a stream of workers passing in and out 

 of the dwelling, and keeping so regularly to one track 

 that they make a beaten path easily traceable even when 

 no ants are on it. These paths invariably end in a hole 

 in the ground mostly at the edges of gravel paths in 

 gardens and the holes can be distinguished from those 

 made by worms by the little pellets of earth brought out 

 of the furrows and heaped near the entrance. 



The end of summer is the best time for examining the 

 nests. On opening one of them a marvellously busy 

 scene is disclosed. Ants are running about in all direc- 

 tions, and most of them are carrying in their jaws the 

 whitish oval objects which at one time were thought to 

 be grains of corn, but which are now popularly called 

 "ants' eggs." Bird-dealers make great use of them in 

 feeding certain birds, especially the nightingale. 



In this country ants do not store food in their nest ; 

 and even if they did, they are mostly carnivorous in their 



