EARLY MORNING SCENE 



their passages, for which purpose they first brought up little 

 pieces of wood to the neighbourhood of the galleries they 

 wished to close, and then placed them above the aperture or 

 even, in some cases, sank them into the thatch. After that 

 they went for more fragments and laid them across the top 

 of the first, and they appeared to choose smaller pieces as the 

 work approached completion. At length they brought in a 

 number of dried leaves and other larger materials, with 

 which they covered the roof. Is not this, on a small scale, 

 the art of our builders when they form the covering of any 

 building ? Nature seems everywhere to have anticipated the 

 inventions of which we boast, and this is doubtless one of the 

 most simple. 



Our little insects, now in safety in their nest, retire 

 gradually to the interior before the last passages are closed, 

 and one or two only remain outside or concealed behind the 

 doors to keep guard, while the others either rest or engage in 

 various occupations in the most perfect security. 



I was impatient to know what took place in the morning 

 upon these ant-hills, so I visited them at an early hour. 

 I found them in the same state in which I had left them 

 overnight. A few ants were wandering about the surface 

 of the nest ; others issued from time to time from under the 

 margin of the little roofs found at the entrance of galleries ; 

 and I soon saw others appear and begin to remove the 

 wooden bars that barricaded the entrance, which they readily 

 succeeded in doing. This labour occupied them for several 

 hours. At length the passages were free, and the materials 

 with which they had been closed were scattered here and there 

 over the ant-hill. 



Every day during the fine weather I was a witness to 

 similar proceedings both morning and evening. 



On rainy days, however, the doors of all the ant-hills 



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