MAUCH. 57 



the cocoons they find, simply, as it seems, for the pleasure 

 of nursing and feeding them. When the supply of food 

 fails. Ants seek their dwellings, and in the inmost recesses 

 they cluster together, and pass the inclement season in a 

 state of torpor. Their food varies greatly; they are fond 

 of sugar, gum, and all the sweet exudations of trees, but 

 their staple food is animal matter, — either those larvae inju- 

 rious to plants, or small animals, whose dead bodies w^ould 

 otherwise taint the air : thus, like every other living creature 

 whose habits are known, they are found to be beneficial to 

 mankind and to the animal creation in general. Many birds 

 use them almost exclusively as food for their young ; phea- 

 sants and partridges seem particularly fond both of Ants and 

 their cocoons. They are winged at one season of the year 

 only, and the female soon rids herself of these appendages, 

 appearing then inspired solely with the ambition of founding 

 a nation ; while labourers from large Ant-hills are continu- 

 ally on the w^atch for these w^andering mothers, whom they 

 bring home to their extensive cities, or raise new buildings 

 for the reception of herself and offspring. 



Ants belong to the order Hpnenoptera, like the Bee and 

 Wasp, from which they however differ in many essential 

 particulars : their workers are wingless, and the females 



