238 GO TO THE ANT 



hitherto to have escaped the notice of all moral philosophers. 

 Even Mr. Herbert Spencer, the prophet of individualism, 

 has never taken exception to our gross disregard of the 

 proprietary rights of bees in their honey, or of silkworms 

 in their cocoons. There are signs, however, that the 

 obtuse human conscience is awakening in this respect ; for 

 when Dr. Loew suggested to bee-keepers the desirability 

 of testing the commercial value of honey-ants, as rivals to 

 the bee, Dr. McCook replied that ' the sentiment against 

 the use of honey thus taken from living insects, which is 

 worthy of all respect, would not be easily overcome.' 



There are no harvesting ants in Northern Europe, 

 though they extend as far as Syria, Italy, and the Eiviera, 

 in which latter station I have often observed them busily 

 working. What most careless observers take for grain in 

 the nests of English ants are of course really the cocoons 

 of the pupae. For many years, therefore, entomologists 

 were under the impression that Solomon had fallen into 

 this popular error, and that when he described the ant as 

 ' gathering her food in the harvest ' and ' preparing her 

 meat in the summer,' he was speaking rather as a poet 

 than as a strict naturalist. Later observations, however, 

 have vindicated the general accuracy of the much-married 

 king by showing that true harvesting ants do actually 

 occur in Syria, and that they lay by stores for the winter 

 in the very way stated by that early entomologist, whose 

 knowledge of ' creeping things ' is specially enumerated in 

 the long list of his universal accomplishments. 



Dr. Lincecum of Texan fame has even improved upon 

 Solomon by his discovery of those still more interesting 

 and curious creatures, the agricultural ants of Texas. 

 America is essentially a farming country, and the agricul- 

 tural ants are born farmers. They make regular clearings 

 around their nests, and on these clearings they allow 



