528 THE HORSE EMMET, OR GREAT HILL-ANT. 



i nation of their nest, is singular. When they have discovered a parcel 

 fitted to their purpose, and conveniently situated, they place them- 

 selves in a line, with their backs turned towards the nest. The 

 foremost lays hold of some with her jaws, and clears it, bit by .bit, 

 with her fore-feet. When this is sufficiently disentangled, she drives 

 it with her feet under her body, and as far as possible beyond, to the 

 second Bee. The second pushes it on to the third and so on. Thus 

 small heaps of prepared moss are conveyed, by a file of four or five 

 insects, to the nest, where they are wrought and interwoven with tha 

 greatest dexterity by those that remain within. 



OF THE ANTS IN GENERAL. 



ALL the species of Ants known in this country are gregarious ; and, 

 like the bees, consist of males, females, and neuters ; the latter alone 

 are the laborers. These build in the ground an oblong nest, in which 

 there are various passages and apartments. In the formation of the 

 nest every individual is occupied: some are employed in securing- 

 a firm and durable groundwork, by mixing the earth with a sort of 

 glue produced in their bodies, others collect little bits of twigs to 

 serve as rafters, placing them over their passages to support the cov- 

 ering; others again lay pieces across these,, and place on them rushes, 

 weeds and dried grass. The latter they secure so firmly, as completely 

 to turn off the water from their magazines. 



From the eggs of these insects proceed the larvae, a small kind of 

 maggots without legs, which soon transform into white chrysalids. 

 The latter are generally called Ants 1 eggs, and are frequently used foi 

 the feeding of young Pheasants, Partridges, and Nightingales. 



The males are much smaller than the females, and seldom frequent 

 the common habitation. All the labor which the females undergo, is 

 the laying of eggs ; and the cold weather of winter always destroys 

 them. The neuters, or laboring Ants, which alone are able to struggle 

 through the winter, pass this season in a torpid state. The females 

 and neuters are each armed with stings. 



It is said that the Ants of tropical climates are never torpid ; that 

 tney build their nests with a dexterity, lay up provisions, arid submit 

 to regulations, that are entirely unknown among those of Europe. 

 They are, in every respect, a more formidable race. Their stings 

 produce insupportable pain, and their depredations do infinite mis- 

 chief. Sheep, hens, and even rats, by loitering too near their habita- 

 tions, are often destroyed by them. 



THE HORSE EMMET, OR GREAT HILL-ANT. 



It is chiefly near the old and decayed trunks of trees that the Hill- 

 ants form their settlements. Their nest consists of a great number of 

 apartments. In these they have their magazines, and bring forth and 

 rear their offspring. 



