142 THE POPULAR NOTION ERRONEOUS. 



But it is unnecessary to multiply quotations to 

 show, that among all our popular writers, as well as 

 among our agricultural population, who might be 

 supposed to have the best means of observing the 

 habits of the ant, she is universally represented as 

 storing up food, and providing for the wants of 

 winter. Yet, universally as this opinion has pre- 

 vailed, it is not the less erroneous, and no species of 

 ant has yet been discovered, which thus hoards up 

 grain. The mistake seems to have had its origin in 

 observing the ants carrying their young in the state 

 of pupse, which in size and shape somewhat resemble 

 a grain of com ; and this opinion would be strength- 

 ened by seeing the ant occasionally gnawing the end 

 of one of these little oblong bodies, as if to extract 

 the substance of the grain, but, in reality, to hberate 

 the enclosed insect from its confinement. Shakspeare, 

 in his notice of this insect, has shown his usual ac- 

 curacy of observation, when he says, — " We '11 set 

 thee to school to an ant, to teach thee there is no 

 labouring in the winter ;" for the ants in these 

 countries lie dormant during that season, and con- 

 sequently do not require food for their su])port. It is 

 possible that in warmer climates we may yet discover 

 some species which do not pass the winter in a dor- 

 mant state, and which, of course, would require a 

 supply of food. But, so far as our acquaintance with 



