HHBER, KIRBY AND 8PENCE. 155 



reception of its eggs a pellet of dung too heavy for it 

 to move, * repaired to an adjoining heap and soon re- 

 turned with three of his companions. All four now 

 applied their united strength to the pellet, and at 

 length succeeded in pushing it out, which being done, 

 the three assistant Beetles left the spot and returned 

 to their own quarters.' This observation rests on the 

 authority of an anonymous German artist ; and though 

 we are assured that he was a * man of strict veracity,' 

 I am by no means satisfied that his explanation 

 of what took place is correct. M. Fabre, in his 

 intrusting * Souvenirs Entomologiques,' records a 

 similar observation, but explains it in another 

 manner, and thus places the facts in a very different 

 light. 



The second case is related by Kalm, on the authority 

 of Dr. Franklin, but again does not seem to me to justify 

 the conclusions drawn from it by Messrs. Kirby and 

 Spence. Dr. Franklin having found a number of ants 

 in a jar of treacle, shook them out and suspended the 

 jar * by a string from the ceiling. By chance one ant 

 remained, which, after eating its fill, with some diffi- 

 culty found its way up the string, and, thence reaching 

 the ceiling, escaped by the wall to its nest. In less 

 than half an hour a great company of ants sallied out 

 of their hole, climbing the ceiling, crept along the 

 string into the pot and began to eat again ; this they 

 continued until the treacle was all consumed, one 

 warm running up the string while another passed 



