404 



THE A>TTS. 



on its edge ; when, running again to the other end, 

 it passed through without the least difficulty. 



The same gentleman says that, sitting one day 

 after dinner in the garden of his college, he was 

 surprised by remarking a single Ant busily em- 

 ployed in some work that caused him to make many 

 journeys to and from the same place. This gentle- 

 man traced him to the entrance of the habitation of 

 a community, from whence he observed him to take 

 the dead body of an Ant in his fangs, and run away 

 with it. He carried it to a certain distance, drop- 

 ped it, and returned for another, which by the 

 time of his arrival was brought to the same hole. 

 This work was continued so long as the gentleman 

 had time to remain near them*. 



In collecting their stores, these creatures may 

 often be observed in full employment ; one of them 

 loaded with a grain of wheat, another with a dead 

 fly, and several together hawling along the body of 

 some larger instects. Whenever they meet with any 

 food too large to admit of being dragged away, they 

 devour so much of it upon the spot as to reduce it 

 to a bulk sufficiently small for them to carry. 



In all their excursions they have some object in 

 view; and they very seldom return to the nest 

 without either themselves bearing something, or 

 without news that something of use has been dis- 

 covered, in which joint assistance is necessary. If 

 information is brought that a piece of sugar, or 



* Brit. Mus. MSS. Rev. Mr, Ascough's Catalogue, No. 44-36, 



