476 OBSERVATIONS ON 



season. The day following, not one flying ant was to 

 be seen. 



Horse ants travel home to their nests laden with flies, 

 which they have caught, and the aurelige of smaller 

 ants, which they seize by violence 18 . 



GLOW-WORMS. 



BY observing two glow-worms which were brought from 

 the field to the bank in the garden, it appeared to us, 

 that these little creatures put out their lamps between 

 eleven and twelve, and shine no more for the rest of the 

 night. 



Male glow-worms, attracted by the light of the 

 candles, come into the parlour. 



EARTHWORMS. 



EARTHWORMS make their casts most in mild weather 

 about March and April ; they do not lie torpid in winter, 

 but come forth when there is no frost ; they travel about 

 in rainy nights, as appears from their sinuous tracks on 

 the soft muddy soil, perhaps in search of food. 



When earthworms lie out a nights on the turf, though 

 they extend their bodies a great way, they do not quite 

 leave their holes, but keep the ends of their tails fixed 

 therein, so that on the least alarm they can retire with 



18 In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1777, on September 6th, I 

 find the following note to the article Flying Ants : 



I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top of some 

 tall elm trees close by my house ; some were continually dropping to the 

 ground as if from the trees, and others rising up from the ground : many 

 of them were pairing; and I imagine their life is but short, for as soon 

 as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propagate their 

 species, and soon after perish. They were black, somewhat like the 

 small black ant, and had four wings. I saw also, at another place, a 

 large sort which were yellowish. On the 8th of September, 1785, 1 again 

 observed the same circumstance of a vast number of these insects flying 

 near the tops of the elms and dropping to the ground. 



On the 2nd of March, 1777, I saw great numbers of ants come out of 

 the ground. MARKVVICK. 



