ENTOMOLOGICAL CABINET. 



their fortune. Borne on these ample wings, and 

 carried by the wind, they fill the air, entering the 

 houses, extinguishing the lights, and even sometimes 

 being driven on board the ships that are not far from 

 the shore. The next morniug they are discovered 

 covering the surface of the earth and waters : de- 

 prived of the wings which enable them to avoid their 

 numerous enemies, and which are only calculated 

 to carry them a few hours, and looking like large 

 maggots ; from the most active, industrious, and 

 rapacious, they are now become the most helpless 

 and cowardly beings in nature, and the prey of in- 

 numerable enemies, to the smallest of which they 

 make not the least resistance. Insects, especially 

 ants, which are always on the hunt for them, leaving 

 no place unexplored ; birds, reptiles, beasts, and 

 even man himself, look upon this event as their 

 harvest, and, as you have been told before, make 

 them their food ; so that scarcely a single pair in 

 many millions get into a place of safety, fulfil the 

 first law of nature, and lay the foundation of a new 

 community. At this time they are seen running 

 upon the ground, the male after the female, and 

 sometimes two chasing one, and contending with 

 great eagerness, regardless of the innumerable dan- 

 gers that surround them, who shall win the prize. 



" The workers, who are continually prowling 

 about in their covered ways, occasionally meet with 

 one of these pairs, and being impelled by their in- 

 stinct, pay them homage, and they are elected as 

 it were to be king and queen, or rather father and 

 mother, of a new colony : all that are not so for- 

 tunate, inevitably perish ; and considering the infi- 

 nite host of their enemies probably in the course of 

 the following dav. The workers, as soon this elec- 



