212 THE GREAT BLACK ANT. 



nowhere. Particularly solicitous of warmth, it seeks 

 the dry sunny reflection of some sheltered gravel-walk, 

 or ditch-bank in a warm lane ; and here it darts and 

 whisks about, in seeming continual suspicion or danger; 

 starting away with angry haste, yet returning immedi- 

 ately to the spot it had left : buffeting and contending 

 with every winged fly that approaches, with a jealous, 

 pugnacious fury, that keeps it in constant agitation. 

 This action, its long projecting proboscis, and its pretty, 

 spotted wings, placed at right angles with its body, dis- 

 tinguish our bombylius from every other creature. It 

 appears singularly cautious of settling on the ground. 

 After long hovering over and surveying some open spot, 

 with due deliberation and the utmost gentleness it com- 

 mits its long, delicate feet to the earth ; but on the ap- 

 proach of any winged insect, or on the least alarm, is 

 away again to combat or escape. Associates it has none: 

 the approach even of its own race excites its ire, and, 

 darting at them with the celerity of thought, it drives 

 them from its haunts. When a captive it becomes tame 

 and subdued, and loses all its characterestic bustling 

 and activity, the inspiration of freedom. 



The great black ant (formica fuliginosa) is commonly 

 found in all little copses, animating by its numbers 

 those large heaps of vegetable fragments, which it col- 

 lects and is constantly increasing with unwearied in- 

 dustry and perseverance as a receptacle for its eggs. 

 The game-fowl, the woodpecker, the wryneck, and all 

 the birds that feed upon the little red ant, and soon de- 

 populate the hillocks which they select, do not seem 

 equally to annoy this larger species. These systematic 

 creatures appear always to travel from and return to 

 their nests in direct lines, from which no trifling ob- 

 stacle will divert them ; and any interruption on this 

 public highway they resent, menacing the intruder with 

 their vengeance. A neighbor related to me an instance 

 of this unyielding disposition, which he witnessed in 

 one of our lanes. Two parties of these black ants were 

 proceeding from different nests upon a foraging expe- 

 dition, when the separate bodies happened to meet each 

 other. Neither would give way ; and a violent contest 



