FORMATION OF HALLS 



remain closed. When the sky is cloudy in the morning and 

 it seems likely to rain, the ants, who are apparently aware of 

 it, only partly open their doorways and hasten to close them 

 again when the rain commences. It would appear from this 

 that they are quite conscious of the reason for which they 

 form these temporary closures. 



To have an idea how the straw or stubble roof is formed, 

 let us take a view of the ant-hill from the beginning, when 

 it is simply a hollow in the ground. Some of its future 

 inhabitants are seen wandering about in search of materials 

 fit for the outside work, with which they at once make a 

 rough but sufficient covering for the entrance ; whilst others 

 are busy mixing the earth which has been thrown up in 

 hollowing the interior with fragments of wood and leaves 

 which are continually being brought to them. This gives a 

 certain solidity to the edifice, which increases in size daily. 



Here and there our little architects leave cavities where 

 they intend to construct galleries leading to the exterior, and 

 as every morning they remove the barricades of the night 

 before, the passages are preserved during the whole time the 

 nest is being made. We soon observe that it becomes con- 

 vex ; but we should be greatly mistaken if we considered it 

 solid. This roof is intended to include many apartments or 

 stories. 



I observed the motions of these little masons through 

 a pane of glass which I fixed up against one of their dwell- 

 ings, so I can speak with some degree of certainty about the 

 way in which they are built. 



It is by excavating or mining the under portion of their 

 edifice that they form their spacious halls, which are low and 

 of heavy construction, but convenient enough for the use 

 for which they are intended, that is to say, for receiving at 

 certain hours of the day the larvae and pupae. 



109 



