76 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



Homeric fable. They were not very pugnacious, as I feared 

 they would be, and I had no difficulty in securing a few with 

 my fingers. I never saw them under any other circumstances 

 than those here related, and what their special functions may 

 be I cannot divine.' 



The subterranean galleries which these creatures form are of 

 almost incredible extent — so vast, indeed, and so complicated, 

 that they have never been fully investigated. A conjecture as 

 to their size may be formed from the fact, that when sulphur 

 smoke was blown into a nest, one of the outlets was detected at 

 a distance of seventy yards. The Saiiba has often done con- 

 siderable damage to property, having pierced the embankment 

 of a large reservoir, and let out all the water before the damage 

 could be detected. 



The winged class is composed of the perfect male and female, 

 which take their departure from the nest in January and 

 February. They are quite unlike tlie other workers and soldiers, 

 being larger and darker, with rounder bodies and a more bee- 

 like aspect. The female is a really large insect, measuring more 

 than two inches in expanse of wing, and the body being equal in 

 size to a hornet ; but the male is much smaller, as is generally 

 the custom with the insect race. Of the hosts which pour out 

 of the nests, only a i^w individuals remain after a space of 

 twelve hours, the nest having been devoured by birds and other 

 insect-eating creatures. Those which survive address themselves 

 to the founding of new colonies ; and so prolific are these insects, 

 that, in spite of the vast destruction wrought among the winged 

 individuals, to whom alone the task of reproduction belongs, 

 man often has to retire before them, and even his art cannot 

 conquer them. 



The Saiiba is one of the very few ants that does not attack 

 other creatures. The real Driver, or Visiting, or Foraging 

 Ant, of which there are several species, belongs to another genus, 

 Eciton, which will be described among the building-insects. 



Most of the British ants are among the burrowers, hollowing 

 out subterranean abodes of great extent, and constructing them 



