INSECTS IN GENERAL. Ill 



closet infested with ants, these insects found their way into 

 it, and were feasting very heartily when he discovered them. 

 He then shook them out, and suspended the pot by a string 

 from the ceiling. By chance one ant remained, which, after 

 eating its fill, with some difficulty found its way up the 

 string, and thence reaching the ceiling, escaped by the wall 

 to its nest. In less than half an hour, a great company of 

 ants sallied out of their hole, climbed the ceiling, crept along 

 the string into the pot, and began to eat again. This they 

 continued until the treacle was all consumed, one swarm 

 running up the string, while another passed down. It seems 

 indisputable that the one ant had in this instance conveyed 

 news of the booty to his comrades, who would not otherwise 

 have at once directed their steps in a body to the only 

 accessible route." 



Now we confess, that this does not appear to us so very 

 indisputable. Is it not possible that the ants, which are cer- 

 tainly not destitute of the sense of smelling, might have been 

 attracted by the smell of the treacle .'' 



The last story we shall quote on this subject for the amuse- 

 ment of our readers, is from the same valuable work of 

 Messrs. Kirby and Spence. 



"" A German artist, a man of strict veracity, states, that in 

 his journey through Italy, he was an eye-witness to the fol- 

 lowing occurrence. He observed a species of scarabaeus, 

 ( Ateiichus pilularius ? ) busily employed in making for the 

 reception of its egg, a pellet of dung, which when finished, it 

 rolled to the summit of a small hillock, and repeatedly suf- 

 fered to tumble down its side, apparently for the sake of 

 consolidating it by the earth, which each time adhered to it. 

 During this process the pellet unluckily fell into an adjoining 

 hole, out of which all the efforts of the beetle to extricate it 

 were in vain. After several ineffectual trials the insect re- 

 paired to an adjoining heap of dung, and soon returned with 



