THE YELLOW ANT. 313 



a grain in weight, with considerable ease ; and even 

 the wasp, which exceeds forty times its own weight, 

 will be dragged away by the labour and perseve- 

 rance of an individual emmet. These little ants 

 are occasionally and profusely deprived of their 

 lives by some unknown visitation. In the year 

 1826, in particular, and again in the following 

 year, I observed, in the month of August, a lane 

 strewed with their bodies. They had bred during 

 the summer in an adjoining bank ; but some fatality 

 had overwhelmed them when absent from their 

 nests, and nearly annihilated the fraternity, as only 

 a few scattered survivors were to be seen feebly in- 

 specting the bodies of their associates. The task 

 of removal, however, with all their industry, ap- 

 peared beyond their powers to accomplish, as on 

 the ensuing day few had been taken away. Had 

 these creatures been destroyed in combat by rival 

 contention, the animosity must have been excessive; 

 but it is more probable that they met their death 

 by some other infliction. 



One year,, on the 3d of March, my labourer 

 being employed in cutting up anthills, or tump's, as 

 we call them, exposed to view multitudes of the 

 yellow species (formica flava) in their winter's re- 

 tirement. They were collected in numbers in little 

 cells and compartments, communicating with others 

 by means of narrow passages. In many of the 

 cells they had deposited their larvae, which they 



